Lead Practitioner - ‘Crewe: Strong through Sport’

The True Athlete Project; Crewe; Hybrid; GBP 14,000 - 26,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible, remote-first working culture

Pension contribution (if salaried)

Job summary

The True Athlete Project invites applications for a Lead Practitioner in the Crewe area. The role is part-time (2.5–3.5 days/week), with on-site duties at The Dome Youth Zone in Crewe and regular evening/weekend delivery. Initial one-year contract with strong intention to go permanent if the pilot succeeds.

We seek someone with deep experience working with young people, mindfulness, and sports-based development. The post supports partnerships, youth wellbeing, and inclusive practice across Crewe.

Qualifications

• Strong experience of working with young people with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.
• Understanding sports-based youth development and applying psychology principles in grassroots contexts.
• Mindfulness-based practices experience and ability to train coaches and youth workers.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver workshops and training for youth workers and coaches, including on-site support.
• Deliver mentoring programmes for young athletes, prioritising para-athletes and neurodivergent youth.
• Support Crewe-based sports organisations to embed sport-for-social-change practices.

Skills

Youth work

Mental health

Mindfulness

Coaching

Partnership management

Organised planner

Job description

Lead Practitioner - ‘Crewe: Strong through Sport’

- This is a UK-based role. Applicants must be currently resident in the UK and have the right to work in the UK, and a full UK driving licence.

- This role is based in/around the Crewe area and will require regular evening and weekend delivery onsite at The Dome Youth Zone, Crewe.

- This is a part-time role, 2.5-3.5 days per week (to be agreed with the successful candidate).

- We are open to applications from those looking for consultancy roles (fewer days per week) or salaried employment (if salaried, this role would include pension contribution).

- Initial one-year contract with strong intention to make permanent if pilot is successful.

About The True Athlete Project (TAP)

The True Athlete Project is an international movement of athletes, coaches, mindfulness teachers, researchers, and sport-for-change practitioners. Together, we're on a mission to build a more compassionate world through sport.

Sport has the power to improve lives, but too often sport is exclusive, uninspiring, and harmful. It falls short of its potential “to unite people, to speak to youth in a language they understand, and to bring hope where once there was only despair" (Nelson Mandela). We bring an imaginative, warm, and mindful approach - transforming how sport is experienced and lived. We work across the sporting ecosystem - from Olympic, Paralympic and professional environments to community centres and schools.

The True Athlete Project is formed of two independent legal entities: The True Athlete Project Ltd, which is a UK charity, and The True Athlete Project (US), which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization under US federal tax guidelines.

www.thetrueathleteproject.org

www.instagram.com/thetrueathleteproject/

About the Role

‘Strong through Sport’ is based on a simple premise: when young people experience joyful, inclusive, psychologically safe and developmentally intentional sport environments, they flourish and they pass all that goodness onto others.

Embedded Delivery & Support for Youth Workers and Coaches at The Dome Youth Zone

• Developing and delivering specific workshops and training sessions for youth workers and coaches, including via in-situ support during youth work sessions.
• Ensuring youth workers and coaches feel supported and confident in their ability to change lives.

Delivering Mentoring Programmes for Young People with Specific Needs in the Crewe Area

• Creating and delivering a mentoring programme for young athletes, prioritising para-athletes and neurodivergent youth.
• Nurturing well-rounded young people with improved resilience, confidence, agency, and wellbeing - supporting not only sport participation, but educational engagement and positive life destinations.

Supporting Organisations in Crewe to Embed Sport for Social Change Principles and Practices

• Working with TAP colleagues to support 2-3 Crewe-based sports organisations
• Helping their teams to develop inclusive environments and build a movement of sport for change in the area.

Person Requirements

- Strong experience of working with young people, with a focus on mental health and wellbeing

- Strong understanding of sports-based youth development, including adapting sport psychology principles and practices to a grassroots youth sport context

- Demonstrable experience and understanding of mindfulness-based practices

- Highly creative and imaginative (this role involves the co-creation of a new partnership and set of programmes)

- Emotionally intelligent, empathetic and sensitive to the needs of others

- Demonstrable experience of proactively managing and implementing programmes and projects - able to initiate, track and follow through on long-term partnerships with multiple stakeholders, thinking ahead on what needs to be done to ensure success

- Passionate about sport and the benefits it can offer individuals, communities and society

- Feel strongly motivated by the mission and values of TAP

- Excellent written and spoken communication, with the ability to tailor tone and style as needed

- Personally well organised and a structured planner

- Relationally open, warm, informal and process-focused

- Experience training and mentoring coaches and/or youth workers in a community sport setting

- Experience facilitating learning and development experiences

- Experience of working with para and neurodivergent young athletes

- Professional background in coaching / mentoring / counselling / human development

Doing Well Markers

- Feedback from the onsite Crewe team that our programme is being professionally run, and delivered with a high degree of personalised care

- Feedback from participants that the programme feels supportive and fun

- Programmes run smoothly, on time, and with minimal friction for partners and participants

- We build long-standing, sustainable partnerships with sports organisations who recognise the value of the TAP approach

- Stakeholders experience you as organised, knowledgeable, calm, warm and enjoyable to work with

- Colleagues experience you as willing to help and contribute with an optimistic outlook and attitude, and able to shift naturally between formal and informal ways of being at work

- You balance structure and detail-orientation with compassion and understanding, holding both people and process well

What We Offer

• A caring, supportive, friendly, energetic and mission-driven team
• Flexible, remote-first working culture (when not required to be onsite)
• Work alongside and in partnership with world class practitioners, leaders, and thinkers, to unleash the power of sport in the world
• A chance to help shape the direction and growth of an international charity that is at the forefront of sport for social change

- We are committed to nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment, and we encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates, regardless of race, colour, gender, gender identity or expression, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.