The Change Foundation has released ‘The Next Five’, an overview of the key strategic goals that the charity says will help it “become the most trusted and radical force in sport for social change” over the next five years.
The foundation is one of the oldest’s sport for development organisations in the UK, having been set up in the early 1980s following the Brixton Riots.
Nav Sira was appointed as its new CEO in early 2025, and her team went ‘offline’ for several months in order to properly reassess the charity’s direction and ambition for the future.
The Next Five is the result of that period of reflection, and outlines five key goals for the period April 2026 to 2031, when the Change Foundation will mark its 50th anniversary. These are as follows:
Goal 1: 50 New Places. Real Impact - The Change Foundation will grow into 50 new places,
Goal 2: Coaching That Changes Everything – the charity says it will change what it means to coach, transforming it from instruction into connection.
Goal 3: The House That Change Built – it will transform its Cricket Centre near Croydon into a “living reflection” of what the charity stands for.
Goal 4: The Spirit of 81 – The Change Foundation will celebrate 50 years of impact by returning to its beginnings, and celebrating 50 alumni, 50 events and 50 moments of change.
Goal 5: Sport With Heart – it will “put healing at the centre of everything we do”, blending therapy-informed practice with sport, turning “every session… into a sanctuary for the mind as much as the body”.
In her foreword for The Next Five, Nav explained: “We’ve spent decades showing that sport can change lives.
“But let’s be real, it still excludes the ones who need it most. The ones carrying invisible weight, surviving systems that never saw them.”
Nav adds: “This next chapter isn’t polished or perfect. It’s honest. It’s built by people who’ve lived the chaos, the hurt, the rise.
“We’re not offering rescue. We’re offering roots. A sense of place. The space to breathe, to be, to begin again. To redefine what sport can be: a home, a future, a mirror that reflects self-worth. No lines. No limits. Just a place where every person matters.”
Read more at thechangefoundation.org.uk
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