Sport Northern Ireland Project Re-Boot: Activate has provided £5,000 of match funding
Activate Carrickmore
Omagh, Fermanagh and Omagh, United Kingdom
Aim
We are fundraising to get the young people of Carrickmore active! Funding will support us to deliver a host of youth initiatives locally.
Who are we?
An Charraig Mhór G.F.C was founded in 1932, and is located at 32 Quarry Road, Carrickmore, Co Tyrone, BT79 9JX.
Our Club and facilities cater for 750+ members across senior male and female teams (aged 18+) and underage (aged 6-18), both males and females. We have Club activity at the facility going all year round. We have teams commencing from under 6 through to senior.
Community impact
Our Club plays a vital role in our local community. For example, our Club facilities are a focal point for the local rural community of Carrickmore providing sport and social outlets everyday of the week.
Our Club membership alone is 750+ members across senior male and female teams (aged 18+) and underage (aged 6-18). This demonstrates the positive impact our Club has in providing Carrickmore residents with sporting opportunities through GAA activities, access to our facilities, cultural opportunities and social outlets.
Our Club members are heavily involved in the wider community, and therefore the Club is central in acting as a vehicle to tackle a range of challenges local people face. These challenges include (but not limited to): rural isolation and increasing prevalence of social isolation (especially since the Covid19 pandemic), reducing levels of health, poor mental health (particularly amongst young people and effects of Covid19 on rural isolated communities), reducing levels of community spirit and social interaction because of Covid19.
The Club also cater for programmes and initiatives outside of traditional GAA activity. For example, Spiorad Carmen (Spirit of Carmen) is a positive vehicle for fundraising within the local community. We also cater for other community groups to use our facilities, such as local elderly groups, running / walking groups etc.
Community is at the heart of our Club. Everything we do helps to enrich the rural community of Carrickmore we serve. We foster a clear sense of identity and place locally in Carrickmore through all our Club programmes.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We are Crowdfunding to help us towards delivering more youth programmes at our facility, which will include GAA programmes as well as more health and wellbeing programmes.
All throughout the last 2+years with Covid19 we have been unable to really drive forward our youth programmes. Now that we are looking to rebuild and build back better, we want to use this fundraising campaign to deliver more sporting opportunities for our younger people, and more health and wellbeing programmes for our young people such as mental health facilitated programmes, healthy eating initiatives and community social events that were lacking over the last 2+ years.
The reason we need to fundraise is because we have had limited ability to fundraise over the last number of years because of Covid19.
We have also found that our young people have been one of the worst affected over the last number of years. For a long time they were unable to meet with their friends, come to the club, or play sport. Our young people have missed out on a lot so we want to ensure our Club and community are supporting them as much as possible as we get back to normal after a few difficult years.
A number of our young people have moved away from the Club since the pandemic. As well as coaches. We need to encourage more young people to get fit and healthy again after a long lay off over the last few years. Crowdfunding and our projects will help us do this. And help young people get active again.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Funds raised will go towards purchasing equipment for our young teams such as balls, bibs, cones and hurdles among other multi sport specific equipment that allows our volunteer coaches to enhance the programmes delivered to attract more young people into playing sport again.
Funds raised will also allow us to bring in qualified emotional wellbeing and mental health coaches for workshops on these important topics.
Funds raised will allow us to better promote our wider club activity throughout the community so everyone knows about the different activities we are delivering that they can get involved in.
How you can play your part
There are several simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
This project successfully funded on 6th October 2022