Introducing… Elliott Rousen, Inclusion + Diversity Officer at the Surrey Cricket Foundation
Watch the video to hear about Elliott’s career to date, what he’s doing currently and why he’d recommend ‘a life in cricket’ to any aspiring young professional.
Keep scrolling to learn more about Elliott and the work of the Surrey Cricket Foundation.
Why have you joined the Surrey Cricket Foundation?
I was really excited by the opportunity to come to the Foundation and try and make a real impact in the lives of the people in the local community and in particular the young people in the area. To be able to make the move down from Edinburgh to make real impact in a community that needs it was just a hugely exciting prospect.
What are the key priorities for your role?
Immediately it will be to get our Street Child programme up and fully running – engaging with young people in our immediate community. I will also be looking to organise several more ‘Vauxhall Loop’s’ for the next year. Both of these projects will afford young people in the area exciting opportunities and experiences.
From then I will be looking to engage with other local communities who maybe we haven’t connected with before and looking to take cricket and the foundation to new environments to make it a sport that really is for all.
What were you doing before?
I was previously working at Cricket Scotland as the Wicketz Community Engagement Officer. My role there was to engage young people from areas of high deprivation in the Wicketz programme. We would use cricket to engage young people and then through workshops and other projects help prepare the young people for future life. I also ran the community engagement for Edinburgh – which in my time there centred around working with the refugee communities and helping them settle in the city by using cricket programmes and then helping them into the club cricket scene. All round a really exciting role and one I am really grateful to have had.
What are your experiences of cricket?
I have loads of amazing experiences with the game. I’ve played since I was around 10 and still have all my love for it, 16 years later. I’ve seen the things the sport can do for people, and the kind of things it teaches you and id just love more people to experience that.
I am really just a bit of a cricket badger…
What are you most looking forward to in your role?
I think the opportunity to make real, meaningful change in peoples and young peoples lives is amazing. I think being in inclusion and diversity allows me to make this a game for ALL in our community, not just for specific/traditional cricket fans. I think the platform and space I am being afforded to just go and make a difference is just really exciting and am really looking forward to doing so!
To learn more about the Surrey Cricket Foundation, click here
To learn more about the ‘A Life In Cricket’ campaign, click here
