Six core services for organisations using sport for change.

The challenge

WESSA, one of South Africa’s longest-standing environmental education organisations, needed to move its programming beyond one-off, event-level activities (tree-planting days, litter clean-ups) toward deeper, sustained environmental stewardship among young people aged 14–25. With South African youth ranked among the most climate-vulnerable globally (UNICEF, 2021) and national data showing significant gaps in climate education, WESSA sought a way to extend its flagship Eco-Schools and Green Youth Hub models beyond the classroom, reach vulnerable youth who don’t consistently access formal environmental education, and do so through a vehicle young people already engage with: sport.

Our solution

Conceptualised, designed and wrote WESSA’s “Playing for the Environment” Programme — a sport-and-play-based environmental education intervention grounded in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) principles, including the full programme logic, Theory of Change, CAPS-aligned curriculum framework, and a phased implementation and scale-up strategy across numerous platforms. Also supported WESSA in developing a funding proposal to share with potential donors.

Services delivered

• Programme conceptualisation, design and Theory of Change development
• SfD curriculum design (CAPS-aligned; mapped to Eco-Schools themes — climate, water, waste, biodiversity, health)
• Multi-partner implementation strategy
• Train-the-Trainer model design for educators, coaches and youth facilitators
• Funder-facing proposal writing and strategic positioning
• M&E framework input (outcome/output indicators, evidence and case-study generation strategy)

The challenge

MUT’s coaches and sport managers operate in a high-pressure environment, supporting student-athletes juggling academic workload, financial and family strain, social pressures and performance expectations, often without a shared, practical leadership framework to guide how they lead their programmes. MUT needed its sport leaders to move from ad hoc, results-only management toward student-centred, ethical and collaborative leadership practice that builds trust, protects student wellbeing and strengthens the sport programme’s standing within the institution.

Our solution

Designed and facilitated a practical, workshop-based leadership training (“Leading with Purpose”) for MUT Sport coaches and managers, translating leadership theory into an applied framework built around three connected pillars: understanding the student-athlete’s lived reality, building well-organised and clearly communicated programmes, and keeping the student at the centre of every decision. The training closed with safeguarding as a core, non-negotiable leadership responsibility.

Services delivered

• Training needs framing and content design, grounded in the specific pressures facing MUT student-athletes
• Interactive workshop facilitation for coaches and sport managers
• Practical leadership framework and takeaway tools
• Safeguarding and ethical leadership capacity-building
• Leadership capacity-building aligned to institutional reputation and programme sustainability

The challenge

MUT’s coaches and sport managers needed to move beyond ad hoc, win-focused programming and design sport offerings that work across the whole student body — from students seeking connection, belonging and wellbeing through recreational and social sport, to those on competitive and high-performance pathways. Without a shared design framework, the risk was a programme that either under-serves the participation base or lacks the scientific rigour needed to safely develop competitive athletes.

Our solution

Designed and facilitated a “Designing a University Sport & Recreation Programme” training built around a Participation → Progression → Excellence framework. The training equipped coaches, managers and administrators to design across two connected tracks — participation and belonging, and performance and excellence — grounded in sport-science principles and a four-stage sport development continuum. As a practical output, developed and introduced a Sport Club Logic Model tool that helps coaches translate activities and outputs into measurable outcomes and long-term impact.

Services delivered

• Training design and facilitation
• Sport-programme design capacity building
• Sport Club Logic Model tool