Team Caterpillar: The journey from RunTogether group to affiliated club
Team Caterpillar is an inclusive running club catering to all abilities, based in the historic market town of Richmond, North Yorkshire. Since formally launching back in June 2019 as a RunTogether group, Team Caterpillar has grown substantially and now benefits from being an England Athletics affiliated club.
The club offers a variety of social and competitive running, with the aim of serving the community, bettering lives and fuelling positive change to health and wellbeing.
Moving to become affiliated
In January 2023, Team Caterpillar advised members of their decision to become an England Athletics affiliated club. For the next year, they operated a hybrid model, allowing members the choice of becoming affiliated with England Athletics or continuing to run for free as part of the RunTogether membership.
A year later, with over 100 affiliated members, the club deemed the demand was there and announced their intention to become a ‘members only’ club.
Benefits of affiliation
Being an England Athletics affiliated club gives you access to a range of benefits and services to help manage, develop and engage your club and its members. These include access to club support services, competition and event licensing, free resources and club programmes.
Speaking on the benefits of club affiliation, Team Caterpillar founder Dionne Torkington-Craven said: “One of the key benefits we’ve observed is the speed of our growth, which has been enhanced by our increased credibility since affiliating as a club.”
The club has now grown to an impressive 210 affiliated members and team of 15 coaches, making it the largest club in the area.
Inspiring leaders to take the next step
After introducing a joint monthly track night with Hambleton Athletics and Running Club (HARC), the club began looking to see whether any of their current leaders wanted to advance their skills to become an Athletics Coach. With the cost of these courses a potential barrier for the club, Dionne applied for the Club Improvement Fund.
The Club Improvement Fund is open to all England Athletics affiliated clubs, who can apply for grants of up to £500 to help with projects that aim to reduce some of the barriers clubs are facing.
Team Caterpillar was able to secure a grant of £485 to support Run Leader Doug to progress through to Coaching Assistant and then Athletics Coach. This grant helped Doug progress on his personal coaching journey, while also supporting the club in its growth by investing in coaches for the future.
Looking to the future
While Team Caterpillar has grown and evolved a lot over the last five years, the club’s approach along with its values of inclusivity, togetherness and supportiveness have remained consistent.
“Our primary focus remains on fostering a strong social and community environment, with running as a secondary priority, all while helping our team members achieve their goals whilst having fun.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT CLUB AFFILIATION HERE
Check out the RunTogether RIA Foundation Member profile here .