Establishing growth-oriented, caring relationships in sport-based interventions: employer perspectives on sport coaching for social change

An ethic of care is desirable when developing positive relationships between sport coaches and their participants. The purpose of this study was to explore employer perspectives on the development of growth-oriented, caring relationships by sport coaches delivering community, sport-based interventions. 19 online interviews were conducted by the research team with representatives from 18 different sport and non-sport organisations based in England, all of which employ sport coaches to facilitate the use of sport instrumentally in the youth development sector. The data suggested that the lived experiences of the sport coach, a close symbiosis of locality between the coach and young person, and the temporal dimensions of the relationship were crucial in establishing a facilitative relationship with transformative potential in this context. Finally, a call is made for investment in workforce development to be available to organisations delivering community sport-based interventions to enable them to deliver cost-effective solutions to policy challenges and harness ‘the power of sport’.