dartford
valley
Dartford Valley
Grassroots Rugby ... A success story in the making?
D
artford Valley RFC is committed to playing an important role in their local community as Dartford’s premier side,
offering rugby to all regardless of age, gender or social background. They have been making tremendous progress
both on and off the field in recent times and their Head of Club Development Luke Stickings recently took the time
to tell us more about the fantastic work they have been doing.
The Club
He told us, “We’ve progressed from the idea of being a drinking
man’s first XV and 2nd XV to very much taking a community
approach to the club. Rugby can bring so much to a local
community like ours and we’ve really pushed the ideas of
respect and discipline which are a very important part of our
club and the game as a whole. Having good role models in a
working class town is very important and that is something we
are committed to providing.
The whole strategy here is that our club is about more than
rugby. It is rugby and we’re very serious about our approach to
the game itself but we believe that we can use it as a tool to reach
out and help people in our local community, teaching lifelong
lessons that can be taken forward in order to be successful.”
The Community
“We are most definitely a community club; we want to provide
kids with a positive experience, teaching them lessons that they
can take into their everyday lives. We have zero tolerance on
parents interfering in training sessions and matches which has
been a big success and caused quite a stir around some of the
local football clubs where things are done slightly differently.
We’ve established connections with three charities; we are an
approved Wooden Spoon Club, contribute to the British Legion
– our new shirts will have the poppies on the collars and half of
the £3 subs paid by our juniors each week goes to our charities,
and we raise money for the Ellenor Hospice which provides
care and support for families facing terminal illness.”
included
wanting
a home of our own
having
essentially
been nomadic for 30
years and the council
took note of the
community
interest
we have generated.
We’ve now got over
200 kids registered in
under four months;
they’ve never played
rugby before but they
are loving it.”
Home of our Own
The club recently received the news that they are in line to
receive £1 million towards their new ground and clubhouse to
enable them to expand on the positive work that they have been
doing.
Speaking after the announcement, Luke said, “The commitment
from the council to provide us with our own clubhouse and
grounds is tremendous news for us. We really are on the way
now and that puts us in a situation where we can concentrate on
identifying the right place to build the new ground.
We want it to be special and to make sure that it is beneficial
to the whole community. Our capital project for the build of
the new clubhouse is within the next 24-36 months which will
hopefully see us playing there by September 2017.”
Youth Development
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