Kent Cricket Community Trust

Organisation: Kent Cricket Community Trust (KCCT) aims to make a positive impact on the local community by engaging with individuals and social groups that often feel isolated. Priority projects include working with young people at risk, refugees and asylum seekers and older vulnerable people. KCCT aims to create opportunities and resources, develop opportunities for facilities and facilitate collaboration.

Project Overview: In the Summer of 2022, KCCT held a number of cricket and tea events to gain valuable insight from the local community. They found that there was a need for walking cricket sessions that engaged older men who wanted to reconnect with the game and offered social elements. Canterbury was identified as an area of need due to its elderly population, high dementia diagnosis and number of people living alone. The funding was used to cover coaching and venue hire costs to trial a walking cricket project in March 2023.

Impact:

• Reconnect with the sport
• New friendships
• Increase in activity levels
• Enjoyment and fun

“Excellent idea, I hope it carries on”. Walking Cricket Participant

Key Learnings:

1. Reach the community who need it most. Build up a database of local organisations who can support you to reach the communities you’re looking to work with. You’re likely to be working towards a common goal.

2. Consultation is important. Find out what your communities want to get out of a session, who do they want to do it with, what do they want to do, where do they want to it, when and how do they want the sessions delivered.

3. Tap into other opportunities. Find out about other opportunities in the local area that you can tap into or provide exit routes for your participants.

“Enjoyment galore, loved meeting new people”. Walking Cricket Participant

Next Steps:

This trial project was a great success and KCCT are using the impact to demonstrate the value of these sessions to local partners to ensure sessions can take place throughout Kent. The hope is that the walking cricket sessions become sustainable through upskilling of volunteer coaches and linking into local cricket clubs.

If you’d like to give walking cricket a go, courses are available throughout the year at various locations across Kent. Please visit Kent Cricket – Walking Cricket to find out more.