Running can transform your life. Even save it.
The health benefits of an active lifestyle are well known, however running also has the potential to dramatically boost mental wellbeing and life chances too.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the UK & US running charities tackling homelessness, loneliness, inequality, littering and more, one step at a time.
With your help, more people will have the opportunity to get into running and receive the support they need.
Give Back To the Sport You Love With These Running Charities
The Running Charity – Engaging Young People Through Sport
The profile of The Running Charity has skyrocketed thanks to Russ Cook (aka The Hardest Geezer) as he became the first person to run the entire length of Africa, working out at two marathons a day for over 8 months.
The Running Charity unleashes the power of running to help young people experiencing homelessness or managing complex needs.
We all deserve a strong start. However, access to support and a route out of homelessness aren’t universally available. That’s evidenced by the face that there are around 103,000 young people affected by homelessness right now in the UK.
Using sport’s unique ability to engage otherwise disenfranchised young people, The Running Charity lays on free group running sessions with qualified fitness professionals coupled with practical development workshops aimed at supporting participants’ goals for the future.
→ Related reading: How Running Can Be Therapy
GoodGym – Good Deeds in the Local Community
GoodGym combines DIY SOS with physical activity to lend valuable support to local communities and isolated older people.
Every week, an army of GoodGym volunteers perform heroic acts ranging from running to collect essential supplies for an older person or helping around their home, to local park makeovers and litter pick ups. All that’s needed to take part is a warm heart and a pair of trainers.
To date, 350,000 ‘missions’ have been completed by GoodGymers up and down the UK. Why not join them and make running fun again?
Preloved Sports CIC – Saving Run Gear From Landfill
It’s estimated that 300,000 tons of sportswear reaches landfill every year and as the global appear of sport grows, so does the waste.
Preloved Sports CIC is reducing the amount of disposal sportswear heading to landfill by reselling your used-but-otherwise-fine gear to other runners. In the process, they also raise money for Talking About Loss to pay forward the support Preloved Sports’ founder, Michael Hill, received after losing his father.
I first encountered Preloved Sports CIC at last year’s Marathon du Malton event and made a promise to myself to help spread the word of their good work, and here we are.
Since September 2022, their proud efforts include:
- 6,866 (74.85%) items has been redistributed to charity
- 1,001 (10.91%) items resold online and via pop-up stalls at running events
- 846 (9.22%) items have been repurposed
That’s almost 10,000 items, and counting!
261 Fearless – Empowering Female Running Clubs
This network of local women-only running clubs double up as social opportunities to discover your self-worth and potential.
The global community of female runners meet up once a week for female-led running drills, games and strength exercises. In turn, the coaches who lead each session receive the fitness, social and emotional education to support members and maintain a thriving community.
Why 261 Fearless? Since 1976, the number 261 has stood for women’s ability to break barriers in running—it’s the bib number Kathrin Switzer wore when she became the first registered woman to run the Boston Marathon.
Related reading: How Was Running Invented
Trash Free Trails – Organised Litter Clean Ups
Raw, exhilarating, and often unforgiving, trail running is the ultimate outdoor exercise. Trash Free Trails aims to keep our beloved off-road routes litter free.
Channeling the plogging movement into purposeful adventures, your bite-sized action can inspire countless others to do the same. Ploggers also feel a deeper connection to the world around them.
I love how fun they make the whole process. Download the Clean Trails Purposeful Adventure Bingo Card and complete challenges such as ‘Fill A Bag’ full of rubbish, ‘Take Public Transport’ to a rural route, or bring a friend along.
British Blind Sport – Become A Guide Runner
Did you know: Anyone can become a guide runner for blind and partially sighted people?
England Athletics and British Blind Sport (BBS) have teamed up to train you up to provide much needed guidance to blind and partially sighted people wanting to take up running in the UK.
The 2-hour England Athletics Sight Loss Awareness and Guide Running Workshop covers:
- Different types of visual impairment
- safety tips for guide running
- how to lay on fully inclusive sessions and running clubs
- practical demos and dry runs
Run Talk Run – Peer Support Running Groups
In terms of the benefits of jogging everyday, it not only works wonders for the body, it’s also kind on your mind.
Run Talk Run meetups are a great way to meet new people and support your peers on a weekly non-competitive 5km jog.
Some people find traditional running clubs a little intimidating. Run Talk Run’s peer support groups try their best to make both movement and mental health support less intimidating, and more accessible. There’s zero pressure to “keep up” on runs. Go at your own pace and the conversations and friendships will flow naturally.
parkrun – Free Weekly Community Running Events
A health and wellbeing charity and movement, parkrun not only transforms lives, it saves them.
In the UK, 4 in 10 adults and more than half of children and young people aren’t physically active enough. 9 in 10 adults in the UK experienced high or extreme stress in the past year. Many people live without company and companionship on a daily basis.
The parkrun concept is simple: meet at one of 2,000 parkrun events in 22 countries across 6 continents, at 9am on Saturday, and walk, jog or run your way to 5km with like-minded souls.
I love parkrun and to say parkrun is inclusive is an understatement.
A weekly show of enormous public altruism the UK over, everyone is welcome and clapped their way round. All ages. All abilities.
&Mother – Supporting Female Athletes
Running’s beauty is its simplicity.
Runners come in all shapes in sizes, and from all backgrounds and budgets.
This opportunity should equally extend to women in motherhood.
Set up by Olympian Alysia Montaño, &Mother challenges the sports industry to better support female athletes before and after pregnancy.
This ranges from shaping industry advertising and product development, to direct sponsorship of expectant athletes, and greater standardisation of support across the industry.
Alysia brought worldwide attention to the barriers and bias that professional athlete mothers face with her viral New York Times op-ed: Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby. The rest is history.
Team Hoyt – A More Inclusive Society Through Sports
The Hoyt Foundation aspires to build the individual character, self-confidence and self-esteem of America’s disabled young people by making organised races more inclusive.
In the spring of 1977, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Far from being a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair and they finished all 5 miles, coming in next to last. That night, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”
This realization was just the beginning of what would become over 1,000 races completed, including marathons, duathlons and triathlons (6 of them being Ironman competitions). Their continued fundraising facilitates inclusion in all facets of daily life for young people with disabilities; including in family and community activities, especially sports.
teroGo – Get Physical At Work
teroGO is an employee engagement and wellbeing platform with physical exercise at its heart. By encouraging your company to sign up, you could be rallying your fellow employees to channel their competitive side into impactful challenges and healthier habits. Miles clocked can be converted to charitable donations, tree planting initiatives and more.
Our climate change actions can be big and small. Everyday and monumental. At work or in your own time.
So, if you need to rediscover your running mojo or want to do your bit to help others to unlock the life-changing benefits of running, there’s lots of running charities and causes on hand to help.
Kitsquad CIC – Donated Outdoor Gear
Kitsquad makes outdoor adventures as accessible as possible, by providing donated gear to those less fortunate.
To date, they’ve helped 1000 people in poverty to access the countryside with the right equipment.
Donations come from kind souls in the outdoor adventure community and drop-off points at Rohan stores. By opting to donate clothing that you no longer reach for when heading out on an adventure, you’re providing that extra bit of support to organisations in ensuring their participants can enjoy safe, valuable outdoor experiences.
Girls on the Run – Building Confidence for Life
Girls on the Run takes to the running track to inspire, encourage and strengthen confidence in the next generation of women.
Girls on the Run reaches girls at a critical stage, strengthening their confidence at a time when society begins to tell them they can’t. Underscoring the important connection between physical and emotional health, the scheme uses running as a conduit to nurture young girls and plant seeds of positive thought for life.
Back On My Feet – A Leg Up from Homelessness
Almost 600,000 people are experiencing homelessness in the US right now.
Back On My Feet encourages participation in running and walking groups 2-3 times per week as a means to integrating back into society and achieving economic independence through fitness and community. Alongside physical exercise, participants receive access to workshops, personalized support, and a one-on-one mentor.
Since 2007, Back on My Feet has served more than 15,000 individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness, boasting an 83% employment rate.
Soles4Souls – Collecting Gently Used Running Shoes
The average pair of running shoes costs $100 and lasts 500 miles. Meanwhile, there is global footwear poverty with significant implications 1.5 billion people worldwide without shoes. Plus, over 2 million shoes are thrown into landfill every week.
Soles4Souls aims to change that by unwanted sports shoes and clothing into opportunity.
So, instead of gathering dust, your unused athletic shoes could provide much needed comfort and eliminate a major barrier to one person’s educational and economic potential.