Millwall Community Trust (MCT) would like to welcome our new Kicks Community Development Officer, Richard Sontan.
Premier League Kicks is a programme MCT has been running for a number of years in the community. Kicks uses the power of football and the value of sports participation to help youngsters in some of the most high-need areas.
We had a quick catch-up with Richard to find out more about him and his new role.
You’ve recently joined on as our new Kicks Community Development Officer, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I describe myself as a youth and community activist and have been for many years. I’ve also been primarily involved in the voluntary sector. The reason why I describe myself as a community activist is because, I’ve often been involved in setting up new things for the community that they often don’t get a chance to do. For example, I was involved in a project trying to get kids back into school after they’ve been excluded. I’ve been involved in rehabilitation centres for people who were on drugs, I’ve run hostels for people who’ve been to prison and come back out e.g., halfway houses. These projects are always trying to provide support to different groups of people, particularly at risk or hard to reach groups.
Currently, I’m involved in a church, and I’m the youth and children’s minister. So, there’s that kind of Christian youth ministry that I’m involved in too.
What made you want to be involved with Millwall Community Trust and the work they do in the community?
I grew up locally and I’m aware of the presence that Millwall has in the community. I know that there is some negative reputation, but I also am aware that Millwall have been involved in the community for many, many years and they’ve in fact been pioneers for things like community work. For example, having a girls team, Millwall Lionesses. I’ve worked with girls who used to play with the Lionesses over 20 years ago. So, I’m aware that Millwall has a footprint locally, and like I mentioned earlier, I’ve been involved in community work for many, many years and often it’s small groups, and I think Millwall are doing some great work and I want to be part of it.
What drew you to the Kicks Community Development Officer role?
What I find attractive about the actual programme is that it’s a little bit quirky, in the sense that, it’s about using sports and outdoor education to impact young people and try to assist in things like reducing crime, anti-social behaviour, etc… and you’ve got the draw of the free sessions to encourage them. I’ve also done this kind of thing, I run football teams myself, and I think Millwall has a good reputation when it comes to motivating young people to join these sessions and take it seriously.
Football is changing and people are going in and charging all kind of fees for young people to play football, and they don’t even receive quality training. I think the community side of the Millwall Kicks sessions is what is attractive to me, as you’re working with communities and helping them get top quality coaching.
What will you be doing in this role?
I am still finding out more about my role here, but I have a vision for what I would like to do with it. A number of areas have been identified where we want to break in to. So, I’m making plans to do that effectively, and introduce what we do to those areas and I’m looking forward to doing that. I also believe there’s an element of training that will need to be involved to bring a youth development style of work to the current style of coaching. The coaching exhibited is brilliant, but we want to do more to really engage the young people and continue to have a positive impact because it’s more than just playing football. I believe we can change society, and football is a way in.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
I think me and Millwall are a good match. Millwall is known for pioneering things in a difficult place, and in my own personal experience, I’ve done a lot of things in a difficult place with very limited resources and we’re kind of coming together, I believe that we can impact the way things are done. I want other clubs to look at what we do think “wow something is going on there and I want to be a part of it”. My vision is that we’re going to really kick it up and people are going to want to copy what Millwall are doing, and I’m the man to do it.
