As always, the Community Team has had a very busy summer. We’ve supported around 300 children over this period through the various projects we run.

Half of these have come through our summer camps we run with Kent County Council funding. During these weeks we have supported between 25 to 30 children a day, three days a week and run activities and ensure they have a hot meal.

We’ve had a Dartford Academy student Callum Ward helping out who has done a brilliant job and we may be looking at bringing him on board in a different role in the future.

Last Thursday we were at a fun day at Oakfield Primary School where we were engaging with the families and giving out passes to home games.

We’ve also run some girls-only camps and linked up with Kent Cricket Club coaches who have worked with us.

We have been working closely with Kent Police in recent months. They gave us funding to engage with the local youth and we have overseen many using the 4G pitch for free when it isn’t being used. It’s about giving them something to do during these long months.

One of the conversations we are having with the police is that there is nothing for the youth to do. There aren’t youth clubs like there were in the past. We are hoping we can find a space to utilise with the council and police.

We are looking at doing some workshops with the police to continue engaging with the young people in the future, but these are ongoing talks.

We now start all over again after the summer. We are looking for extra funding as the funding from the Premier League has now finished, to allow us to keep doing what we are doing.

We have also added a couple of new schools to our roster who want to do more with us this year. Oakfield Primary has brought us in five days a week from September, where we will run afterschool football. Again, it helps us promote the Club to the pupils and parents.

We hope everyone has enjoyed the summer and the Community Team is looking forward to getting back into the schools, shortly.