Can Golf Change a Young Person’s Future? Creating New Opportunities in Chester & North Wales
Posted on:
Can Golf Change a Young Person’s Future? 
What if golf could be more than a sport? What if it could become another doorway through which a young person discovers confidence, belonging, new skills and opportunities for their future?
Genuine Futures recently visited Ultimate Indoor Golf in Chester, where we met PGA Professional Golf Coach Steve Priest, alongside Roy Bannister, founder of Iron Minds Academy.
The visit was an opportunity to introduce Steve to Genuine Futures and our We Shine Any Car youth-led social enterprise, while discussing the collaboration we are developing with the team at Inspiring Futures to support more young people across Chester and North Wales.
The conversation reinforced something we strongly believe: young people do not all discover their potential in the same environment.
For one young person, the doorway might be education. For another, it could be golf, boxing, fitness, enterprise, a trusted mentor or their first experience of work.
The important thing is that the doorway exists.
Reaching Young People Before Crisis
Across the country, too many young people are struggling to make successful transitions into education, employment and adulthood.
For young people facing multiple barriers, the consequences of disengagement can become increasingly serious.
Our approach at Genuine Futures is built around prevention before crisis.
Rather than waiting until a young person has completely disengaged, we want communities to create more opportunities for them to participate, develop relationships, discover their strengths and gain meaningful experiences earlier.
That is why our developing work in Chester and North Wales is not about creating another standalone programme.
It is about connecting existing community strengths around young people.
Golf: Swing, Mind and Body
Steve Priest’s approach to professional golf coaching particularly connected with our thinking.
His coaching considers three elements:
Swing. Mind. Body.
While improving someone’s golf is the immediate objective, many of the behaviours developed through sport can have a much wider value.
Golf can provide opportunities to develop focus, patience, confidence, communication, self-discipline and resilience.
For a young person who may not immediately engage with a classroom-based programme, an environment like this could provide a different starting point for building a trusted relationship.
The golf itself can become the engagement tool.
The longer-term objective is progression.
Boxing and Fitness: Another Route to Engagement 
Our conversations also include the potential role of boxing and fitness training, working alongside people such as Roy Bannister and Iron Minds Academy.
Again, this is about much more than physical activity.
Structured boxing and fitness sessions can provide young people with routine, goals and opportunities to build relationships with positive adults.
Combining these experiences with mentoring, employability and enterprise could create a much broader pathway:
Golf + Boxing + Fitness + Wellbeing + Mentoring + Enterprise + Work Experience + Progression
Instead of expecting every young person to fit into one intervention, we can create different ways for them to engage.
Bringing We Shine Any Car to Chester 
A significant part of our discussion was We Shine Any Car.
We Shine Any Car is Genuine Futures’ youth-led social enterprise model, using car washing and valeting as a practical environment where young people can gain genuine experience.
Young people can develop skills in areas including:
- Customer service and communication
- Car washing and valeting
- Health and safety
- Teamwork and responsibility
- Timekeeping and reliability
- Marketing and promotion
- Money and enterprise
- Confidence and employability
Importantly, young people aren’t simply attending an employability session.
They are participating in a real enterprise.
That distinction matters.
It creates opportunities to experience responsibility, interact with customers, understand workplace expectations and build evidence for a CV.
Our ambition is to explore how the model could be developed with partners in Chester and North Wales, while maintaining strong safeguarding, training, quality and progression standards.
Our Collaboration with Inspiring Futures
We also spoke about the collaboration we are developing with the team at Inspiring Futures.
There is an opportunity to bring complementary experience, relationships and resources together rather than organisations working separately.
That could connect:
education and alternative provision
youth justice and prevention
mental health and wellbeing
sport and physical activity
youth-led enterprise
employability and work experience
local businesses and employers
The strength will not come from any one organisation attempting to provide everything.
It will come from building a local ecosystem of opportunity around young people.
Businesses Have a Role Too
One of the biggest opportunities is involving Chester and North Wales businesses.
Supporting a young person does not always require a business to create a new programme or make a large financial commitment.
Businesses could contribute through workplace visits, mentoring, work experience, equipment, sponsorship, volunteering, contracts for youth-led enterprises or ultimately employment opportunities.
Imagine a young person beginning by attending a boxing or golf session.
They build a relationship with a trusted adult.
They progress into We Shine Any Car.
They learn how to work with customers.
They gain experience and a reference.
They visit a local employer.
And eventually, they move into further education, an apprenticeship, employment or enterprise.
That is the pathway we want to build.
Different Skills. Shared Purpose. Real Opportunities.
Our visit to Ultimate Indoor Golf was another conversation, but potentially an important one.
There are already businesses, community organisations, coaches and professionals across Chester and North Wales who care about the next generation.
Our job is to help connect those assets and turn goodwill into practical opportunities and sustainable progression pathways.
Because prevention isn’t simply about stopping something bad from happening.
It is about making sure something better has the opportunity to happen instead.
Watch the Full Video 
See our conversation and find out more about what we’re exploring in Chester.
Watch “Can Golf Change a Young Person’s Future?” on YouTube
Help Us Create Opportunities in Chester & North Wales
We want to hear from schools, youth justice services, local authorities, businesses, employers, funders, sports organisations and community partners interested in working with us.
Whether you can provide a young person with their first experience, first introduction, first customer, first reference or first job, you could become part of the pathway.
Genuine Futures
Genuine Futures — Bridging the gap to opportunity.