Target reached!
With the extra money we will provide children with a football/hurling stick to keep ...
St. Teresa’s Building For The Future
Belfast, United Kingdom
Aim
The aim of this project is to provide a pathway for young children in the local community to get involved with their local GAA club.
St. Teresa’s Building For The Future
Our Appeal
Due to Covid 19 our youth have suffered more than most. Children's physical health and well-being has been dramatically effected over the last 2 years.
We are planning to deliver coaching to specific age groups in schools within the local catchment.
Providing a pathway into our club will develop children’s physical health, improve their wellbeing, develop communication skills and confidence while also providing life long friendships and exercise.
The impact of COVID-19
The global COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on our club. During lockdown and subsequent restrictions we were unable to provide training and match opportunities for our members and this had a particularly negative impact on our juvenile members. Many of our members reported that their physical and mental health declined during ths pandemic as they missed the opportunity to be active and connect with others in the local community. We are eager to rebuild our club for the future by developing our dedicated volunteers to provide more training opportunities for young people.
Our club is situated in a vibrant community but one which is socially and economically deprived. So providing easy access to low cost, locally available sporting activities for local families is very important to our club and has a positive ripple effect on our community and its health and wellbeing. All our activities are led by a dedicated team of volunteers.
Following the easing of restrictions, and in line with public health guidance, we want to rebuild our club for the future by developing our kids coaching sessions. There has been a big upsurge in interest in our club activies - particularly in the 6-11 age range. We know that playing sport can greatly improve the physical and mental health of young people as well as helping them cope with the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. We want to support the development of our coaches and expand our sessions so more kids can enjoy gaelic games and reap the benefits of physical activity.
The pandemic has had a massive impact on our ability to fundraise as the usual mass participation events like indoor events sponsored walks etc have not been possible. As a small club this has really hit us hard. In order to fulfil our ambitions we would greatly appreciate support from the public.
'Building for the Future' - What we plan to do
We will run four week blocks of after school coaching sessions for each year group from P1-7 in the local primary school and Years 8 & 9 in the local secondary school, a total of 36 sessions.
To finish off the programme and encourage future involvement, we will organise a Fun Day at our club for those involved along with their families and current members also.
How we will use the funds
1. Develop our coaches through provision of Fundation and Level 1 GAA coaching qualifications.
2. Purchase relevant equipment (hurls, helmets, footballs etc) and coaching aids (bibs, cones etc)
3. Organise a fun day at the end of the coaching programme for children and families involved as well as current members.
4. Hire indoor/floodlit training facilities when required.
Sport Northern Ireland Project Re-Boot: Activate has provided £5,000 of match funding
This project successfully funded on 18th December 2021