News

Kick Action Academy

5th June 2021

Volunteering Barnet support more than 40 organisations across the borough in the recruitment of their volunteers. Community Football club, Kick Action Academy are just one of those organisations whose volunteers were integral to delivering their services to the community. Here’s their story…

“Kick Action Academy are a community Football Club based in Finchley. We aim to create a safe environment for girls to express themselves by breaking down barriers related to health and wellbeing, helping girls to raise their aspirations, and build their confidence and motivational skills through the power of football. We have mixed football sessions with boys and girls, as well as girls-only football sessions.

All participants are encouraged in a fun and safe environment to gain a sense of achievement, whether this is through scoring their first goal on the football pitch, or taking part in team competitions where they learn the value of teamwork. 

Our volunteers

Volunteers are important to our organisation, as many come with vital skills that we need at ‘Kick Action Academy’ to succeed. For our small, young organisation, volunteers help us in providing some financial stability while we don’t have the fund to accommodate a full team of staff. Volunteers such as Louis, who came to us with a world of coaching experience and excellent sport skills, are really important to us.

Volunteering is not just about the organisation but about the person who volunteers.  Louis our volunteer coach says “ I like volunteering because it is fun and helps to make a difference to all those involved.”   

“ I like volunteering because it is fun and helps to make a difference to all those involved.” 

– Volunteer Coach Louis

Our volunteer roles

Our volunteers work with us to plan and supervise games and practices. They teach the fundamentals of football, such as the values of team work, sportsmanship and fair play.  They are leaders and role models for our young people. Louis found us through an advert we placed with Volunteering Barnet. He has all the qualifications and attributed we were looking for in a volunteer coach. He is enthusiastic, patient, organised and dependable; a real asset to our community football club.

If volunteers want to progress further, they have the opportunity to study for their Level 1 FA Coaching Badge where coaches receive important training, including goal and pitch setup that meet health and safety standards for all staff and participants.   

Kick Action Academy and Volunteering Barnet

From attending an online information forum with Volunteering Barnet which we found particularly useful, we were able to interact with other organisations and volunteers through listening to ideas, ask integral questions and receive positive suggestions and feedback. The support provided by Volunteering Barnet has been of great benefit to us as we have been able to advertise available roles on their website and social channels to recruit valued Volunteer!

We would recommend Volunteering Barnet to other organisations as they give organisations like ‘Kick Action Academy’ a platform to advertise. They also give potential volunteers easy routes and a variety of opportunities to demonstrate the positive impact they can have on organisations, beneficiaries and their wider community. 

The impact of our volunteers

The overall impact volunteers such as Louis and Priya have had on our organisation is the value and support they have brought to Kick Action Academy, which has enabled us as an organisation to achieve our aims and strategic objectives. Louis and Priya have brought a diverse range of skills, ideas and working pratices which have helped us to adapt and meet the needs of our participants, ultimately resulting in more opportunities to improve the delivery of our football sessions!

If you are an organisation and would like to find out more about how Volunteering Barnet can help support you in your volunteer recruitment, please visit our organisations page on the website here. We look forward to working with you!