Sport Northern Ireland: Creating Opportunities has provided £3,975 of match funding
Kildress Fit Bodies & Minds
Dungannon, Mid Ulster, United Kingdom
Aim
We are fundraising to get the young and old people of Kildress active! Funding will support us to deliver a host of initiatives locally.
Who are we?
Kildress Wolfe Tones was founded in 1952, and is located at 46 Loughdoo Road, Co Tyrone, BT70 2SW.
Our Club and facilities cater for 600+ 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 Kildress providing sport and social outlets everyday of the week.
Our Club membership alone is approx. 600 members across senior male and female teams (aged 18+) and underage (aged 6-18). This demonstrates the positive impact our Club has in providing the Kildress population 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, reducing levels of health, poor mental health (particularly amongst young people in rural isolated communities).
The Club also cater for programmes and initiatives outside of traditional GAA activity. For example, Cairde Cill Dreasa (Friends of Kildress) 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 Kildress we serve. We foster a clear sense of identity and place locally in Kildress through all our Club programmes.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We are Crowdfunding to help us towards delivering healthy minds and bodies programmes at our facility, which will include various health and wellbeing programmes.
We are continuing to build, we want to use this fundraising campaign to deliver the program to all ages, with more health and wellbeing focus for our communtiy such as mental health activities, healthy eating initiatives and community social events that have been lacking in the past
We want to deliver new programmes within the clubs these include:
- Sport Activities for Children and Adults with additional needs who can't participate in standard GAA activities
- Mind and Body Well Being activities for young and old to help the community with Mental Health Fitness.
These are new to our club as we currently only cater for core GAA activities primarily football and also cultural activities
This project will be delivered 20 December 2025 with the following timeframe:
Week 1
Introduction
Week 2-6
Coaching of Currenty Non GAA Registered Children and adults with special needs within the community
Mental Health Talks and Activities for Grounding, Improved Energy, Balance and Recovery
Week 7
Reflection & Self Appraisal
We have also found that our young people have been one of the worst affected over the last number of years. We want them to get away from the devices and use physical interactions as a basis of development and growth into adulthood.
A number of our young people have moved away from the Club due to lack of opportunities. As well as coaches. We need to encourage more young people to get fit and healthy again and enjoy what the outdoors has to offer. Crowdfunding and our projects will help us do this. And help young people get active.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Funds raised will go towards purchasing equipment this program such as balls, bibs, cones and hurdles among other multi sport specific equipment that allows our volunteers and providers to delivered this program and attract more people to take care of there mental and physical health.
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 January 2026