Ederney St Joseph's Empowering Youth Through Sport

Who are we?

Eadarnaigh Naomh Seosamh is a Gaelic football club based in the village of Ederney, County Fermanagh.

Woven into the very fabric of the community, Ederney St Joseph’s GAC, we have been providing high quality sporting, social and recreational activities for young and old for almost 100 years.  Our club works together with local charities, community groups and other sports associations to ensure everyone has the best possible opportunities to improve their physical and mental health and overall wellbeing – from keep fit classes, walking clubs, litter sweeps, plus coffee mornings and seasonal events.   

Our proud volunteers provide opportunites for over 150 youth members to play football, hurling and camogie. We cater for kids as young as 3 years old with fundamental games, right through all youth levels offering developmental and competitive team games. 

We consider ourselves extremely fortunate and are very grateful for our state of the art facilities, including two playing fields, changing facilities, indoor studio and gym for over 16s - however we know that none of this would be possible without our strong community spirit and dedicated members.

Why are we Crowdfunding?

Like many other clubs, we have had a difficult time in recent years due to the impact of COVID-19, the lockdowns that followed and now in more recent times the cost of living crisis that has been effecting us all by rising costs of food and energy bills.

We are still in the process of recovering our declined number of youth members, specifically between the ages of 11 & 16. This age group have went through some of the most important development years of their life's having to social distance. They have missed out on opportunities to meet and build new relationships, develop their social skills, gain confidence while improving their health & fitness and most importantly just being young and having fun.  

The purpose of our Crowdfunding is to help us recover lost ground by getting more of our young people active again and by reaching out to some young people who traditionally have not played Gaelic games. This aligns's with Sport NI's objective to increase access to sport and pyhsical activity for young people. 

We hope the initiatives we are taking will encourage more young people back into sport again and help us find new members through our Outreach Programme. 

Any funding raised above our target will be channelled into pitch maintenance costs, which have significantly increased for us recently due to the combination of inflation and climate change. 

How we’ll spend the money raised

We want to raise funds through Crowdfunder. With every pound donated, Sport NI will match it up to a max of £5,000, therefore every donation is crucial and your support will have a huge impact on your community and young people. 

To achieve our goals this funding will help;

• Provide foundation coaching for 15 volunteers including a Child Safeguarding Course.
• Provide essential First Aid Training to all lead coaches.
• Implement a 6 week S&C training program for girls aged 11 to 16.
• Implement our Outreach Programme which focuses on educating and promoting young people from other backgrounds to participate in sport activities at our club.
• Purchase playing equipment, including balls, poles, cones, bibs, hurdles.
• Purchase team playing kits to give a sense of togetherness.
• Offer workshops on nutrition.
• Offer seminars on Mental Health Awareness, Alcohol and Substance Abuse.
• Arrange team building days. 

                                    Our U8s & U10s at the Dome in Mayo

Community impact

Our community facilities are much, much more than just a GAA facility.

In times of need our community rally round, we have celebrated together, been sad together, mourned together and our club and facilities are the central hub to all of this.

A sport club is a group of people who come together to play sport at an amateur or professional level. Our club is so much more, it is an integral part of the identity and culture of the community. Through our actions we support the physical and mental health of our neighbours and ourselves. 

We are very proud of our ever-growing in popularity 'Halloween Walk' which takes place each year within our club grounds. This event brings together communities and breaks down barriers for all to gather and have some spooky fun together.

We also recognise the value of providing support in uniting communities and bringing people together from different backgrounds, and thus we are putting a big emphasis moving forward on continuing to promote our premises as a community hub for all, regardless of age, ability, race, or religious background. 

How you can play your part

There are four 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!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!