Humans of Grassroots Sport | Ray Ansah

Read time 3 minutes 

Calthorpe Project’s Sports Development Manager Ray Ansah spoke to us about the impact sport has had around Kings Cross for our latest Humans of Grassroots Sport interview:

I’ve been in grassroots sports for the last 9-10 years, starting in football coaching with an organisation called Pro Soccer Touch Academy, I saw early on how sports make a positive impact within local communities and Calthorpe offered the perfect balance between the two. They thrive off each other.

I joined the Calthorpe Project just over 2 years ago after being drawn to the combination of sports development and community engagement. My own tough upbringing meant I wanted to work closely with locals and give something back to the community.

In ten years much has changed at our site, but perhaps the most significant element I’ve noticed is in health and safety. Safeguarding our members and visitors is vital and these changes have definitely been a positive in the age we live in.

Working at Calthorpe has thrown up plenty of funny experiences and memories. Of course, there’s been a fair share of howlers on the pitch and as I play a lot – a decent collection from me as age catches up with me. Still, it doesn’t stop me coming back for more!

One of the funniest experiences was one of young people destroying our sports development officer with some slick skills, slipping the ball through his legs and putting him on his backside – time and time again!

As we’re a public space just off Grays Inn Road so we’ve had an eclectic bunch of visitors over the years. There’s loads of them, but I won’t go into more detail here!

It’s been an amazing couple of years here, but I’m more excited by the future of the project. Our sports booking function helps bring in charity resources and as an extension we’ll be adding more activities for people to get involved in.

Our aim is making the project as inclusive as possible, whether that’s through sports, the cafe, play area or garden.

During the course of the year we’ll be running a range of sporting initiatives, which include Women’s football, Lunchtime Leagues and Youth Futsal Drop-in Sessions. Another exciting project at Calthorpe is the Rising Coach Programme.

If you’d like to find out any further information, just drop me an email or call. My details are:

T: 020 7837 8019
M: 07342 271120
E: ray@calthorpeproject.org.uk