Head of Community Darren Phillips casts his eye over the community side of DFC 

It’s been a busy summer for the community team, with holiday camps, tournaments and a lot of work going into getting the team and its programmes ready for the start of the school year and new season.

Kent County Council approached us to run a holiday camp for a month. This entailed three days a week of fun for children aged between four and 14, who would usually be given school meals during term-time. Not only did we put on activities, we also provided hot meals for them which is not something we would usually do, but it was a huge success and the children really enjoyed it.

August saw the return of our grassroots teams, with around 30 teams and 350 boys and girls now training and signed-up, including three new teams at Under-7s. They will be playing in the Selkent, Kent Girls and Ladies or Kent Youth leagues, with matches getting underway again in September.

This week, we had a couple of girls teams going to the Ballerz arena at Blue Water, set up by Rio Ferdinand, Roberto Carlos and some other pro footballers. It’s a start-of-the-art air dome, which was a great experience for them.

Our coaches will be back into the schools over the next few weeks, supporting children in and out of the classroom. Not only are we in 36 out of 42 primary schools in Swanley and Dartford, but this year we have the addition of a secondary school – The Leigh Academy. 

The school wanted their pupils involved in more sport and we were able to support them during a 10-week trial last year. They have now asked us to go back and support them for the year, which we are really looking forward to.

We are due to have another meeting with various council members in the next few weeks. There’s not a lot for children to do between six and eight o’clock around the Dartford area each evening and I’m hearing there are few, if any, youth clubs and the local dance academy has had to shut. With the amazing facilities and coaches we have here, we would love to be able to help and provide some organised sessions during these times, but as with anything it’s about funding. It’s a case of fingers crossed and watching this space!

We’ll now be making regular updates about what we are up to in the community and are sure to have plenty more to talk about as the season and school year gets underway.

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