The Golf Trust was set up to bring people together through golf. The Golf Trust’s work has brought the benefits of golf to thousands of people and helped to make golf an accessible sport for all.  We can harness the power of golf as a driver of social mobility and change. The impact of our work goes beyond what happens on the golf course; Golf has the power to bring together homes, families and communities. We are passionate about using golf to inspire and empower the people we work with to lead happier and healthier lives. Our specialism is adapting the golf activity to suit the needs of the community. Golf is the one of very few sports where four generations of a family can take part together.

Established in 2012 at the Shire London Golf Club by Cae Menai Davis and Frank Harrington it grew from a shared goal of the two men to showcase the inclusive nature of golf. Cae, who had been splitting his time between his playing responsilbilities on the Asian Tour and his involvement with the Shire London, was struck by a broader range of society playing the sport he loves. It was during a visit to Golf Live at The London Club in Kent that he met Frank who had been invited to provide activities for children and young people through their ComGolf programme. ComGolf aka Community Golf started out as a sports and education outreach programme for the UK male cancer charity ORCHID. The programme used golf as a mechanism to engage people in the awareness message that playing sport and living a healthy lifestyle can help in the fight against cancer. The programme continues to work as a successful arm of the Orchid message and has worked with schools and community groups across the UK.

The Golf Trust brings together all the various strands of ComGolf and The Shire London’s work with disabilities, creating something that means everyone can experience golf regardless of ability, age socioeconomic status or location.

We became a registered charity in 2017 (Registered Charity Number 1172134), enabling us to expand our work and raise money to deliver new projects. We aim to offer opportunities to those from low socio-economic backgrounds and disabled people and their families to learn to play golf and gain the benefits that golf has to offer: socially, mentally and physically. We focus solely on the positive impacts it brings individuals and families.

Our work is split into three pillars: disability, older people and low socioeconomic communities.

• Our disability work is pan-disability delivery; however we focus on offering more specific opportunities for autistic people and those with spinal injuries. We are raising awareness of disability and educating the golf and sport sector on disability. We are the Els4Autism delivery partners in the UK. We deliver Game On training to golf professionals, volunteers and multi-sport coaches to educate them on the theory of autism and how to practically deliver golf sessions for autistic people.
• Our older people’s provision is delivered in care homes, residential day centres and sheltered housing accommodation. We also deliver early on set dementia golf groups at golf facilities, where all members become part of the Forget Me Not Golf Club.
• Our lower socio-economic activity is focussed on inner cities, adapting golf to their environment and challenging perceptions of golf. We work with local organisations to gain the trust of the community. Our ethos is to deliver where the community are, build trust and introduce them to the golf facility.

The work of The Golf Trust extends across the UK and internationally. We are working with the key stakeholders in Grenada and Kenya to raise awareness of disabilities particularly autism. We aim to change the perception of disabled people and we are using golf to create positive outcomes for them and their families.