Rugby Club Issue 57 | Page 57

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 all images courtesy of pete bresser. All rights are reserved by the photographer. Usage rights are granted on a non-exclusive basis. Redistribution is only ag ɕ