Having recently identified that faith is an under-explored area in how community sport organisations achieve their positive impact, we wanted to find out more – so we’ve headed back to the Levelling the Playing Field network for further insights.

Our specialist partners across the LtPF network use sport and physical activity to engage ethnically diverse children who are at increased risk of entering the Criminal Justice System.

For several of those specialist partners, faith is an integral part of how they attract young people and their families through the door. It also guides their working ethos and is a key spiritual driver and motivator for staff who put in tireless work to support young people in any way they can. 

Wolverhampton Wrestling Club is based in an inner-city Sikh gurdwara and has been going for 51 years. A key tenet in Sikhism is ‘seva’ - the ethos of selfless service to others. 

It’s that spirit that has made the club what it is today: a welcoming, multi-cultural, hard-working, nurturing and hugely positive hub. It also just happens to be a world-class training centre for wrestling, mixed martial arts and kabaddi.

"The Sikh faith teaches you to welcome all and treat everybody around you as family,” explains club manager Ranjit Singh. “That has enabled us to make the gurdwara a safe space where everyone feels totally comfortable. 

“We are one big happy family. There are no cliques. That’s our culture. If you come in as a stranger, everybody will shake your hand. Finding somewhere like this, that’s so diverse and inclusive, it hooks people in straight away. That is how we’ve sustained the club over so many years.” 

As well as being a top-class training environment for athletes from all over the world, the club has a wellbeing centre which runs mentoring, mental health and education programmes. There are also programmes for young people caught up in local crime, violence or gangs, struggling in mainstream education or dealing with neurodiversity issues such as autism. 

“There’s a real ‘wow factor’ in having such diversity in a place of worship,” says Ranjit. “It attracts all sorts of people – whether they’re Sikh, Muslim, other faiths or of no faith at all. We actually have more non-Sikhs than Sikhs. It’s a safe space for everyone.” 

Once through the door, people of all ages and backgrounds find that wrestling offers discipline and teaches them how to be respectful and humble – on and off the mat. “It isn’t just wrestling, it’s a lifestyle,” says Ranjit. 

Seeing high-performance wrestlers from India, Poland, France, Mexico, America and elsewhere right in the heart of their community gives local young people inspiring role models and generates ambition. The club's performance pathways are key to changing lives. "If we don't have those pathways, we lose them," says Ranjit. The club has trained 25 coaches to Level 2 and more are being upskilled all the time. 

The club’s next ambition is to replicate their model at 15 other gurdwaras around the country over the next five years. “There is a lot of work to be done, but we have the right networks and our staff have the drive to achieve it,” says Ranjit. 

For another of our specialist partners, Centre of Change, based in New Addington in Croydon, south London, faith (Christianity in their case) also plays a key part in their success. 

Centre of Change provide counselling and mentoring services to young people from some of our London-based specialist partners in the area. Assistant director Diane Rouillon is one of many staff members who feel the work is “a calling” and “an act of obedience to God.” 

She says: “Everything we do is rooted in the faith we have. One of the principles of Christianity is to love your neighbour. New Addington is our neighbourhood and our Christian ethics are what guide us to look after our people.” 

Some Centre of Change staff members are non-Christians or have no faith at all – and many of their clients are agnostic or atheist. The counselling and mentoring process itself is not religious – they do not judge or preach. But the ethos that drives the service is deeply rooted in faith. 

“We are accountable to God himself and we take this accountability very, very seriously,” says Diane.  

That accountability involves not turning people away and sometimes providing the service for free or at a discount if people can’t afford it. “God reveals to us in the Bible that he is Jehovah Jireh and will provide for our needs,” states Diane. 

“The need for support here in New Addington is massive. But our belief in God gives us confidence that we can do the work he has assigned for us – to provide for the needs of our neighbours. 

“We don’t stringently means-test, but we never want to turn people away because we know we are here for a reason – to provide excellent mental health and emotional support. That’s the biggest difference between us and a non-faith-based organisation.”