Club Captain George Dobson presented Charlton Athletic Community Trust’s (CACT) Anthony Quarm with the Premier League Community Captain award, recognising over five years of hard work across Premier League programmes.
Originally starting as a Premier League Primary Stars Officer and now working as a Diversionary and Mentoring Manager overseeing the Premier League Kicks and Inspires programmes, Anthony has gone from strength to strength working with CACT.
Premier League Primary Stars is an education programme which aims to inspire learning, promote an active lifestyle and develop important life skills. The programme benefits both young people aged 5-11 and primary school teachers, including Stephanie Baker who with Anthony’s help gained confidence in transitioning back to being a PE Lead at Alderwood School after returning from maternity leave and was named as a Premier League SuperStar.
Anthony explained what his work with CACT and the Premier League has involved so far:
“My journey at CACT started with me becoming a Premier League Primary Stars Officer. It was a role that delighted me straight away as it was an opportunity to work with young people, to inspire and be linked with the Premier League. I started off by coordinating and delivering so I was going to schools doing workshops.
“My role now is a progression from where I was in terms of coordinating to now managing. I’m still involved with the Premier League as part of my role which is in the crime reduction side of Early Help and Prevention, I am overseeing Kicks and Inspires programmes.”
Reflecting on his work with CACT and the Premier League, Anthony said:
“The best part about my job has been that no day is the same. Any day looks different especially when you work with young people. They inform the decisions we make in terms of what we put on for them as it’s all to support them. So that has been the best part about it, just inspiring young people, seeing the positive changes and achieving such key outcomes.”
Carl Krauhaus, CACT’s Head of Early Help and Prevention, said:
“I’ve been managing Anthony for around 7 months now. He came in to work under our strand and had previously worked on Premier League projects through his role with Football and Sports Development overseeing Premier League Primary Stars.
“All I was hearing was a lot of positivity about how Anthony had turned that programme around. He’s now come across to Early Help and Prevention and all I have seen has been Anthony’s work on other Premier League initiatives such as Premier League Kicks and Inspires, and he has raised the bar very quickly in our department as well. We were doing a good job but Anthony has actually pushed us up a few levels since he has come in and all I have seen has been fantastic work from him across Premier League programmes.
“I think CACT and the Premier League are very lucky to have him as a member of staff delivering our programmes.”