Sport Northern Ireland Project Re-Boot: Activate has provided £5,000 of match funding
Our Children Are Our Future
Limavady, Causeway Coast and Glens, United Kingdom
Aim
Our children are our future, therefore the focus of this project is to support our youth by improving resources, training and equipment.
Our Story
St. Matthew's GAC, founded in 1927, provides Gaelic games for all ages. It is the heart of the community in this rural North Derry setting. We are a cross community club which provides football, hurling and camogie from under sixes through to senior level. We also provide much needed activities in our community hall: junior and senior basketball, strength and conditioning classes, men's and ladies' fitness classes, Irish dancing, bowls, couch-to-5K, fundraisers, church celebrations, school PE lessons, summer Cúl Camps, first aid/defibrillator training, The Big Bus health check, coach training courses and much more.
Impact of Covid-19 on our youth
Like many other sporting clubs, Covid-19 had a huge impact on our young people. They missed out on so many experiences over the last two years: sport, friendship, health and well-being, learning new skills, and most importantly, fun. They have been kept in social bubbles, missing out on so many fun and socially interactive experiences through school, club and community activities. They have become disengaged with their peers and are gravely lacking the social interaction needed for positive well-being. This pandemic has exacerbated many of these problems, encouraging them to be more introverted, spending too much time on screens and less time outdoors. Research tells us children need at least an hour of physical activity outdoors every day, with the latest showing us that this cohort of young people need to be nurtured more than ever. Over the last two years the pandemic has had huge detrimental effects on them, so it is essential that we provide our children with the opportunities to nurture them back to some form of normality. The main focus of this appeal is to build back better, post Covid-19, and support our youth back to play.
Project Reboot
As our new season begins, we plan to use this project to encourage all our players back to play while also focusing on attracting new members. Our committee will plan a timetable for all underage teams to train and compete in games. We will appoint an underage development co-ordinator to oversee the training and management of our football, hurling and camogie teams from age 4 through to 18.
New equipment will be ordered for all teams eg indoor and outdoors balls, sticks, helmets, cones, nets, bibs, etc. Four of our underage teams currently share one set of jerseys, making it difficult for parents/coaches to have them washed and ready for the next day which, in some cases, was the following day. We plan to purchase new jerseys to alleviate this problem, as it is important that our players are kitted out in the proper gear, and that they feel a strong sense of pride and belonging to their club.
We aim to use this funding:
- to encourage as many of our young people back out to play by advertising on our social media channels
- to attract new members and families into our organisation to enjoy our national games
- to purchase new equipment necessary for the coaching of so many teams: footballs, camogie balls (indoor and outdoor) sticks, helmets, training equipment
- to support and train coaches to the required standard for effective leadership and management
- to purchase much-needed new kits for some of our teams
- to provide first aid/defibrillator/child protection training for all coaches for the safety and protection of all our members
- to cover costs for the much-needed maintenance of our main grass pitch to ensure safe play for all
- to promote activities to improve mental health and well-being, physical health, and to alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation
- to facilitate the hosting of Go Games, blitzes and summer Cúl Camps
- to encourage new friendships, to build a sense of belonging, to take pride in where they are from, and most importantly, to build character, resilience and self-confidence in each young person.
Our Vision
Our overall aim for the year ahead is to see every child participating in sport in a safe and secure environment, engaging with their friends, forming new friendships within their own club and others, improving their physical fitness and looking after their mental health and well-being. We would like to see an increase in the number of individuals and families on our official registration forum and build on these numbers every year, growing from strength to strength.
This project successfully funded on 16th April 2022