CASE HISTORY GRAVESEND LTC

Working with a faith community in Gravesend. This area is among the most deprived in the UK, where 43% of households are in relative poverty. More than 15,000 Sikhs live there, making up 15% of the population. They have typically never engaged with tennis.

There are two gurdwaras (temples), including the largest in Europe, Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara. Gravesend LTC, supported financially by Kent Tennis, began an initiative to encourage the Sikh community to enjoy tennis by engaging with this gurdwara.

Following an approach to the Head of Sport, the club participated in the colourful Vaisakhi Festival in April 2024, which attracted 10,000 visitors to the gurdwara. The club stall distributed flyers and community members were signed up for the club’s Open Day in May. The flyer featured a young Sikh role model who has achieved great success as a player at club level. The flyer was entitled “Tennis for All”, and the phrase “We look forward to welcoming you” was presented in Punjabi script. Eighty new contacts were established that day.

Many members of the Sikh community attended the Open Day, with 19 of them subsequently taking up the offer of free coaching, predominantly women and girls. The club additionally gave those attendees free access to what is normally pay-and-play improvers coaching.

In July, the club hosted a junior beginner social tournament, which many of the Sikh youngsters attended. By the end of August, the club had 19 adult and 20 junior participants from the Sikh community in their programme; many are now club members.

Thanks to the scheme’s success, Balwinder Singh Cheema from the gurdwara has taken the first part of his LTA Level 1 coaching course, with a view to becoming a SERVES facilitator at the gurdwara sports hall.

The club will attend the 2025 Vaisakhi Festival to build on this success.