Clonakilty RFC | “Putting Inclusivity At The Heart Of What We Do”

“We wanted to put inclusivity at the heart of what we do.” These are the words of Clonakilty RFC Director of Rugby Neville Burton as he begins to explain the excellent work which the West Cork club are doing in reaching out to marginalised groups in the area.

On this particular wet and blustery November Saturday morning, there is a steady stream of parents dropping off their children for the day’s first of two minis training sessions. The minis programme in the club has proved so popular that they have had to split the morning into two sessions to accommodate the 330 children who are involved.

Despite many of the club’s facilities, including the popular coffee shop, remaining closed due to the current government restrictions, the grounds of the club are a hive of activity and excitement is in the air as the children prepare to get their hands on a ball, albeit a slippery one.

Of this excited and giddy group are nine enthusiastic children from the Clonakilty Lodge Direct Provision Centre; Francesco, Joseph, Jamal, Wayne, Cyril, Keith, Lulu, Rihanna and Mimi.

Many of these children are new to the sport and their participation is the result of a growing relationship between the club’s Community Engagement Officers and Service Coordinator for Clonakilty Friends Of Asylum Seekers, Kitty Sisson.

“We have brought nine kids from the local Direct Provision Centre out to play rugby here at Clonakilty rugby club which is a great new initiative,” Sisson tells Munster Rugby. “We’ve been getting it off the ground for the last three weeks and they’ve been here, and they’ve been enjoying themselves.

“It’s been building on an existing relationship that’s been happening on an ad-hoc basis for the last few years. So one or two of the kids who are here today have been part of the club for a while. And then, Sinead (Burton) and Courtney (Canning) who are the Community Engagement Officers for the club, reached out to me a few weeks ago and said they would like to include more kids and get the programme up and running properly. So it’s great.”

Sisson adds:

“Over the last few months, in particular this year with COVID, has really shown the spotlight on Direct Provision and children are living in one room. In family groups, they’ve got 35 bedrooms, they’ve got nearly 100 residents and some of the kids here have siblings, two or three siblings, and it’s a great opportunity to get out and integrate with their peers in a very natural way, get the exercise in, really. It’s really important.”

Positive Youth Development

Community Engagement Officer Courtney Canning who alongside Sinead Burton is spearheading this initiative says that from a social and youth development perspective, getting these nine children involved on a weekly basis is hugely beneficial.

“I suppose sport and, in this case, rugby, is incredibly conducive to creating an atmosphere that promotes positive youth development,” Canning says.

“So, the kids that are coming now, socially it’s amazing for them. They’re making friends and I suppose most importantly they’re having fun. Every young kid deserves the right to play with their local team. At a local level, we feel that it’s very important to do everything we can to make sure that right is provided for and make it as accessible as possible.

“That’s the joy of volunteerism, seeing smiles on kids’ faces is what it’s all about. In this case, they might have been shy, or they mightn’t have the confidence to ask if they could get involved so to be able to welcome them like this is brilliant. Long may that continue.”

Clonakilty RFC Community Engagement Officer Courtney Canning

Reaching out to Clonakilty Friends Of Asylum Seekers is just one initiative of an overarching plan for Clonakilty RFC to be a truly inclusive club. A decision was made a number of years ago to apply this mantra to both on and off the pitch matters, as Director of Rugby Neville Burton explains. 

“I suppose it has been a strategy that a number of us have been working on for many years now where we wanted to put inclusivity at the heart of what we do,” Neville says.

“That obviously extends to the pitch where we’ve got equal playing time for all players. No A or B teams all the way to U16, a fully functioning girls section. But we also felt that inclusivity needed to be something that extended beyond the pitch and beyond rugby. We wanted to make sure that as part of our strategy that everybody in Clonakilty is welcome at the club and can be part of our club. So we decided to appoint two community engagement officers. Courtney Canning and Sinead Burton were a super fit because they are both passionate about community engagement.”

Clonakilty RFC Director of Rugby Neville Burton

The success of the club’s mini section was recently recognised by winning the Munster Rugby Club Mini Section of the Year award and underage chairperson Helen O’Hea says that this success has been years in the making.

“It’s a great achievement,” O’Hea says.

“This didn’t just happen overnight, this is years in the making. It’s a testament to all those coaches from down through the years who have put in the hard slog, coming out here every Saturday morning in the wind and rain, as I say, all these professional rugby players, they had to start somewhere so hopefully down the line we’ll see the fruits of our labour as well.”

Inclusivity

With the club’s mini section thriving, Canning hopes that this initiative is a stepping stone to other projects including reaching out to the LGBT and Traveller communities in Clonakilty.

“We’re not going to stand here and take credit for what we haven’t done yet. This is such a new initiative and the first thing we have done is to reach out to the Friends Of Asylum Seekers. It has been really, really positive. We have other plans, we certainly plan on working with the LGBT community here. Our plan is to run a Pride Week here in the club which will involve all young underage members and the adult rugby team wearing the pride colour socks for games that they’re playing, hopefully, if they go ahead.

“We also plan on working with the Traveller community and we also really want to focus on mental health because it’s such a big issue now. We’re trying to create workshops that will help the coaches improve the soft skills of the kids intertwined in their training sessions. So, improving their confidence, their empathy, their trust, their leadership. So as well as making young kids here better rugby players, we really want to make them better all-round individuals.”

“They’re very excited about it,” Sisson says. “They really enjoy it, they enjoy seeing their friends outside of school in a more free environment. And they’re not just playing with other kids in the Direct Provision Centre, they’re playing with all their friends. They love it. They genuinely do love it.”

Community Engagement Officer Sinead Burton echoes Sisson’s sentiments.

“They’re lovely kids, they’re happy to be out here, they just want to meet their friends and get involved.”  

As the sun makes a much welcome appearance as the first of two minis training sessions begins to wind down, the children make their way from the pitches with muddy knees and beaming smiles.

This is what it’s all about.