Community sport development: managing change and measuring impact

This special issue was inspired by recent developments within community sport which has seen a continual redefinition of the roles and responsibilities of community sports organisations. Central to these developments has been the increasing demand upon organisations to be held accountable in relation to their various funding agreements and the requirement to evidence a return on the investment given by multiple stakeholders (Brookes & Wiggan, 2009; Collins, 2010). At its core, community sport development is about addressing social inequalities and the need to understand and challenge these issues with society (Bloyce & Smith, 2013; Hylton & Totten, 2013; Mackintosh, 2011, 2020). Our intent has been to provide a special issue which offers insight into best practice examples of the management of change and measurement of impact within community sport across a wider variety of organisations and settings to address these issues (Hylton & Totten, 2013).