Our Evidence & Research
Every junior rugby club makes a difference to the young people that go through their ranks. The clubs engaged with star* scheme have dozens of inspiring quotes, stories and research evidence of how coaches, families and officials support young people in fulfilling their potential.
Towards the end of this page, you will find details on our approach to research, past, present and planned.
Direct quotes about being involved in star* scheme
from Young People
‘... it gives you everything’.
‘... [star* enables] lifelong friends playing rugby’
‘... how it makes me feel about myself is why I want to do stuff with star’
from Families
‘… She loves it. You know, that she would, she, uh, you know, she likes to do nothing more than play rugby. It's calmed her down for sure.’
‘... realizing that you can make that real difference.’
‘... star enables belonging’
‘... improved the way I think about himself’
‘... intrinsically inspires people’
from Coaches
‘seeing that magic work with the family and the child over a period of time’
‘[becoming] hyper aware of children and their needs’
‘[understanding] how to coach in a mentally healthy way’
‘... developing the adults first helps us help the children later on.’
‘It's about creating safe relationships’
‘... it only takes one emotionally available adult to make the difference.’
Three individual ‘quick-reads’
James
James is one of four brothers living in council housing on the edge of the Chew Valley. A restraining order was placed on their father following several incidents of physical domestic abuse. James’ behaviour significantly deteriorated at school and was eventually expelled. His coaches supported James with regular visits, tailored training programmes, and one-on-one mentoring.
James now trains every day, won the Players’ Player Award in the 2021/22 season, has re-engaged with his school work, and ,his Mum says “Chew Rugby was the key part of his transformation.”
Daley
Following a five year prison term, Daley’s father was killed in a motorbike accident. Daley was 11 and his mum brought him to Chew Valley RFC at a time when he was dealing with the impact of these incidents. Under the guidance of his coaches, he learned the basic skills of the game, developed fitness, eventually becoming an easy first choice pick for the uniquely successful team he’d joined.
Daley’s Mum said, “… playing rugby for Chew saved him from going down the wrong path in life – he’s a different boy.” Daley has since joined the Bristol Bears Academy and won a place at the SGS Academy to play rugby and study for a vocational qualification.
Emma
Emma joined one of our star* scheme affiliated junior rugby clubs following a referral from her support worker, who had found us through our website.
The previous 18 months, had seen Emma absconding from home and school and her relationships with mum and step-dad had become strained.
Emma had played rugby in school and enjoyed the release that it gave her hence the referral. The local club welcomed her with open arms, and with the support of star*, supplied kit, arranged transport and supported her step-dad to attend training sessions and matches with Emma. She settled well, developed good relationships with team mates, joined in with training and began to form relationships with the coaching team.
Two weeks into her time at the club, during a conversation in the changing rooms with team mates, Emma disclosed that she had been subject to sexual abuse at the hands of a group of adult men. She said that it had been going on for over a year and that she hadn’t told anyone. Her team mates supported her to immediately tell her coaches who then followed process and the police were called. Within 24 hours the men were arrested, support was put in place for Emma and her family, including ongoing support from the rugby club.
Fast forward 10 months.
Emma has started her second season at the club, surrounded by friends and the support of the club community. Emma’s school attendance has also improved dramatically with Mum and step-dad attending every training session and match… and volunteering their time to support the club. Emma’s younger siblings are all playing too and are very much part of the rugby family.
This is exactly what star* scheme was set up to do: provide a safe space where young people facing challenging experiences can go and become part of a community supported by trusted adults trained to do their very best. In addition, star* it is not just for the young person referred but their families too. In this example, they are not only are they very much now a part of the club they are giving back too.
Deeper Case Studies
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Alex’s teacher reached out to the star* scheme manager in his local local rugby club because Alex was’ such hard work at school, except when he’s playing rugby’. After the Regional Manager visiting Alex, and running other sessions in school to see who else be interested, Alex was paired up with a local club and started to join the weekly sessions. His social skills developed, his conflict resolution improved and his general wellbeing in school was better. The teacher reported: ‘it seems to have helped him settle down… it is making him feel better about himself and he is beginning to be better at school’.
But then he stopped coming.
It was only when the Regional manager made contact again via the school, that we discovered Alex was walking four miles from his house to the club as his family could not afford the transport. Being cared for by his grandparents, and his Dad over 1.5 hours drive away, we arranged for the club’s star* manager (also a mum who children attended training) to either collect Alex en route or for a taxi to take him to practice each week.
Recently, his Nan comes with him in the taxi to watch him and is making building relationships to, she said: ‘well, it's nice. It was nice to come today and I could show my support and show some interest. And said, I know nothing about rugby, so it's good to do it.’. Nan is confident in asking for help from the club’s star manager in arranging transport and kit and sees the benefit it is having on Alex.
His Dad, inspired by the enthusiasm Alex has for the game, drove the 40+ miles to watch him play a game. The coach (having received the trauma-informed training) realised who’s dad it was, and spent some time telling him how well Alex was doing. The coach has been identified by the star* manager in the club, and by the Regional manager, as someone is is very trauma-aware. The coach himself discusses the conscious decision to adapt his coaching approaches to individuals, especially Alex. The club’s star manager has noticed how the coach has ‘so much on the eye contact with the boys and more focused’. He is aware that Alex needs a positive male role model in his life and tries to talk with Alex about how to improve his game, even when Alex’s patience gets the better of him, the coach asks him to simply ‘have another go’.
His teachers continue to report how well he is doing and Alex himself says how much of a difference it makes to him personally. ‘It has changed how I feel about myself’.
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Published Research
Abstract
This early release paper demonstrates the emerging impact of the Star Scheme, a charity that aims to support and transform the lives of young people that experience adversity in childhood, ACEs or poor mental health. Star is an acronym of Support, Transform, Achieve through Rugby and often abbreviated to star*; the asterisk denoting that there is ‘more behind it’. The charity engages grassroots rugby clubs, premier rugby clubs and schools to identify young people that live with adversity that might benefit from playing a team sport such as rugby. Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology forms the basis for star*’s research using unstructured interviews (known as prompted monologues) of grassroots and premier rugby coaches, young people (under 18 years of age), families and volunteers involved in the scheme. Twenty prompted monologues have been transcribed and coded, in-vivo line by line and included in this paper. At the time of publishing, both formal research outcomes and anecdotal evidence suggests that star* is having a profound impact on the lives of young people, families and the volunteer adults involved. Young people share how the scheme changes their lives and how it gives them something to ‘aim for’, ‘live for’ and ‘keeps them on the straight and narrow’. Coaches and club volunteers discuss how the scheme impacts not only how coaches adapt to respond to different needs of young people with adversity (e.g. coaching styles, communication approaches, adapted activities, additional support), they also feel more able to support all the young people in their clubs, including being more confident in addressing behaviour, being more positive and able to signpost to additional support if needed. Some coaches also note how involvement in the scheme is changing how they communicate personally and professionally outside of rugby for the better, with tendencies to be less reactive and take a more listening stance. The appreciation from families of young people too is clear, with one parent noting how the scheme is a ‘... key part of [the young person’s] transformation’. It is clear from the muti-facted nature of the proactive approaches within star*, that the scheme acts as a bridge between formal and informal support for young people in education and social care systems. However to what extent this is due to the newness of the programme, and/or how it may be filling a socio-cultural or economic gap (for instance by providing transport, kit, access to additional support and resources to families), is not clear at this stage. There is much research to be done and so we recommend further longitudinal research to understand how star* and its approaches affect young people long term; how it might affect different young people experiencing different adversities, and how it may affect wider relationships: familial, community and professional.
Our Research Approach
As the only sports charity in the UK currently to use Constructivist Grounded Theory* as our evidence base, we engage in three forms of research to measure impact: Broad, Specific and Deep.
Introduction
The impact of the Star Scheme is often reported by the people on the ground involved in it, including young people, coaches, families, club volunteers and star* team members.
As a trauma-informed sports charity, Star Scheme’s mission is to make a material difference in the lives of young people and their families who have multiple adverse childhood/community experiences (ACEs) or mental health issues. We do this through multiple ways from training grassroots rugby coaches and volunteers in trauma-informed, cognitive development theories to reducing barriers that might prevent young people from accessing rugby training, such as transport and kit.
In terms of understanding our impact, we are one of the few charities that use grounded research to drive what we do, not just prove what we do works. We use research to help design, adjust and reform our practice, but often people perceive research to be a tedious number crunching process. At star*, we take stories with a statistics approach, meaning that we use qualitative approaches to collecting what people think, say and do on the ground in the moment, document this using specific ways and then seek additional statistics to reinforce or challenge what we find. This approach is called Constructivist Grounded Theory, and it seeks to construct understanding from people on the ground, and it constantly seeks to use original data (in this case extracts from real people) to exemplify the theories we present. At star*, we employ Constructivist Grounded Theory to elucidate the multifaceted impacts of our initiatives on individuals and groups. By utilising this qualitative research method, we immerse ourselves in the rich data (the exact words) collected from various stakeholders, empowering us to explore and discern the diverse experiences and perceptions related to star* .
Through an iterative and ever building process of data collection through unstructured interviews (or ‘prompted monologues’ that we repeat over a period of time), we uncover the nuanced theories in which the scheme’s approach influences personal development and culture change. These theories are created by grouping key terms, ‘codes’ from the words people use and continually revisit and match them up into groups, called Constant Comparison). Essentially, Constructivist Grounded Theory allows us to uncover unanticipated insights and perspectives, enabling a more holistic understanding of the scheme's implications by using people’s own words as mirrors to understand our actions, and fostering continuous improvement in our strategies and support mechanisms.
We use Grounded Theory in three different approaches of research: broad, specific and deep. See drop downs to the right.
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DescBroad research asks three non-leading, qualitative questions of anyone at anytime involved in the scheme with the aim of understanding the reach of star*. All team members are empowered to collect responses from the Chair of the Board to the newest Regional Manager. This work is continuous and ever-evolving; it helps to contextualise and adds background to the Grounded Theory.
To date, our broad research would suggest that the charity has significant impact, most notably in the development of people’s social capital: the ability to draw upon social action and interactions to develop one's confidence, support structures, connections and opportunities. This is reinforced by the work of Viding, et al. (2022) who discuss the need of positive and protective social architectures. Participant references in our research often related to ‘developing common understanding, new networks that are enabling’ were frequent and numerous. The frequent term, ‘network’ was used by all groups, often in the context of expanding that of the young people. Networks are also used by coaches to describe their change of role to becoming ‘emotionally available adults’; a critical and resounding element echoed through most interviews, and seemingly the most important impact of the charity to date.
Notions of ‘bridging’ were described powerfully by one coach, discussing how the charity provides formal structures for informal support. The impact of the charity’s training and the development of coaches resonates continuously, including comments such as:
‘[becoming] hyper aware of children and their needs’
‘[understanding] how to coach in a mentally healthy way’
‘... developing the adults first.’
‘It's about creating safe relationships’
‘... it only takes one emotionally available adult to make the difference.’
Young People and Families
For young people, it is clear that the mission of star* is to reduce the barriers for those with ACEs and mental health challenges so that they access sport, build new relationships, experience success is understood and acknowledged by individuals.
‘... it gives you everything’
‘... lifelong friends playing rugby’
‘... why I want to do stuff with star’
Interviews with young people is a key focus of our Deep Impact Case Studies which we are conducting in 2024.
Adults involved: coaches and supporters
As far as coaches are concerned, the impact on this group is clear: the support they receive through training and star leadership is having a marked impact, with practice being transformed from a traditional rugby coaching to a more emotionally available adult mindset. This is seemingly not just having a direct impact on young people, but on them as individuals:
‘... realizing that you can make that real difference.’
‘... star enables belonging’
‘... improved the way I think about myself’
‘... intrinsically inspires people’
As of January 2024, we have conducted ten Grounded Theory prompted monologues of supporters, coaches, family members and young people. In brief, every line of each prompted monologue (an uninterrupted unstructured interview) was coded in three ways: in-vivo extracts (exact extracts used by participants), interpreted codes using sports and charitable contexts and star* acronyms as codes (support, transform, achieve, resilience).
Our plans to engage in specific research will look at coaches as a particular group, with the intention of understanding if similarities and differences exist between paid coaches of the premiership clubs and the volunteer local clubs.
Neil, L., Viding, E., Armbruster-Genc, D., Lisi, M., Mareschal, I., Rankin, G., Sharp, M., Phillips, H., Rapley, J., Martin, P., & McCrory, E. (2022). Trust and childhood maltreatment: evidence of bias in appraisal of unfamiliar faces. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 63(6), 655–662. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13503ription text goes here
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DescriptioSpecific research uses a case study approach to look at impact on specific groups that has arisen from either the broad or deep approaches (‘purposive sampling’ within Constructivist Grounded Theory). Its aim is to understanding a specific phenomena observed, such as increased referrals, the role of community liaison workers or the impact of emotionally-available adults. This is usually conducted through prompted monologues (unstructured interviews) by our Lead Researcher with a single prompt focused on understanding more of the phenomenon.
In 2023, we conducted a series of surveys of coaches and leaders in clubs that had recently engaged in star* training. It could be said that the thoughts of coaches and leaders involved in the star* scheme (via online survey) were based around the concept of ‘meta-awareness’ (the deliberate attention toward the contents of conscious thought, serving as an appraisal of experiential consciousness). Meta-awareness is necessary for such uniquely human tasks as monitoring and controlling conscious thought.’ (Chin & Schooler, 2010)’.
In the context of the star* scheme, we would suggest that this relates to a combination of being self-aware in how one might support YP with ACEs and aware of how ACEs can affect YP.
For those involved in the scheme for more than six months, there was a greater emphasis on the awareness of ACEs on YP. Perhaps subtle, but it might suggest that the longer coaches and leaders are involved in the star* scheme, the greater impact they ‘see’ and ‘understand’.
In 2024, we continue to delve into the thoughts of grassroots coaches by asking the same three questions (see below) of everyone. Preferably, these ‘prompted monologues’ (interviews) are audio recorded to help with the transcription process. should audio recording not be possible then coaches will be basked to complete the questions themselves using a Google Form.
- What does rugby and the star* scheme mean to you?
- And, what difference does it make?
- And, is there anything else about it?
The responses will be coded and grouped according to Constructivist Grounded Theory approaches and a case study produced early 2025.n text goes here
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Description text goes hereDeep Research is focused on tracking the journey of individual young people new to star* across the regions. Through a series of deep prompted monologues, Regional Managers listen to not only the young person but all the adults around them including teachers, coaches and family members. Repeated three times in a season, the grounded approach seeks to understand the profound changes that can occur as a result of star*.
Having agreed our ethical protocols, we are currently in the early stages of participant selection and initial interviews. Our approach to both the broad and deep case studies (including ethical considerations) can be seen by clicking on the links.
We are particulary interested in collecting the stories of what we call in the research world as the 'outliers', the stories that are not the norm and contain an unusual element or dimension.
Currently, we have a few case studies we are pursuing including a young refugee and, using our new star* Australia project, including Original Peoples of Australia.
We are keen to look at other unusual stories that need to be told, particulary those that with protected characteristics under the Equalities Act.
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Description text goYou can read our published research below. As a fairly new charity, we are still building our research base, and expect to publish several papers in the next 12 months.
Research Papers: