Sport Northern Ireland Project Re-Boot: Activate has provided £3,628 of match funding
RGU Community Sports Project
Downpatrick, Newry, Mourne and Down, United Kingdom
Aim
Vital funds will support our Club to build back better from the Covid19 pandemic, allowing us to enhance programmes for young people locally
Who are we?
Russell Gaelic Union Gaelic Athletic Club is based in Downpatrick Co Down. Our community facilities provides Gaelic Games coaching as well as overall health, wellbeing, fitness and social support to the local Downpatrick community.
Our community facilities organises, promotes and competes in Gaelic Games and other associated cross community activity for all, regardless of age, gender, background or ability within the Downpatrick area.
The club aims to enhance community cohesion and community spirit and is driven by strong amateur and volunteer ethos. Through our community facilities we aim to improve the physical, mental and social wellbeing of all in our local community and build the confidence of all those in the local area to partake in sport, health, wellbeing and community activities.
Our club is home to two playing pitches, a synthetic multi-sports pitch, a hard surface playing area and a 1km floodlit Trim Trail
Though like many sports clubs across the globe, the pandemic forced us to shut tour doors and keep to COVID regulations. With 250 of approx 400 members being under 18 years old, we saw firsthand the impact this had on the young people of the area.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Our facilities provided a much needed outlet during the various Covid-19 restrictions and will be crucial as we emerge from a very difficult period, especially for the young people in our community. Our ability to raise funds and to provide collective activities for our various youth groups was heavily restricted during Covid-19 restrictions, so we are trying to arrange additional activities and secure additional equipment to cater for the demand that now exists and to make up for lost time.
As a result of the pandemic, we lost a number of young members, particularly females, who drifted away from sport and we have a lot of work to do to re-recruit and re-engage them and to attract new participants. This new project will go some way to addressing those issues and allowing us to find novel ways of meeting the challenges facing us. It will enable us to get young people back together participating in sport and improving their wellbeing at the same time.
To enhance our facilities and provide additional sporting opportunities, especially to young females we wish to improve our sports provision on our synthetic multi-sports pitch and hard surface playing area. We will provide a multi sport programme to take advantage of these facilities, including specialized coaching, strength & conditioning introductory sessions and workshops on nutrition, hydration and recovery after exercise. We will aim to provide suitable equipment on both areas for the playing of multiple games along with basket ball and netball markings and nets. This will provide additional sports for our young people, which will improve fitness, team cohesion, social acceptance and health and well being. The provision of netball in particular will appeal to young females giving them additional opportunities to partake in sport and help prevent the drain of sporting uptake this particular section our our community has between the ages of 12 and 18.
These additional facilities will help us retain and increase our youth membership with a focus on providing additional opportunities for young females; increase participation in team events and provide a long term pathway towards our Senior teams and a life long dedication to our club. We aim to be a central sporting hub in our community welcoming to all.
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.
How we’ll spend the money raised
To enhance our facilities and provide additional sporting opportunities, especially to young females we wish to improve our sports provision on our synthetic multi-sports pitch and hard surface playing area. We will provide a multi sport programme to take advantage of these facilities, including specialized coaching, strength & conditioning introductory sessions and workshops on nutrition, hydration and recovery after exercise. We will aim to provide suitable equipment on both areas for the playing of multiple games along with basket ball and netball markings and nets. This will provide additional sports for our young people, which will improve fitness, team cohesion, social acceptance and health and well being. The provision of netball in particular will appeal to young females giving them additional opportunities to partake in sport and help prevent the drain of sporting uptake this particular section our our community has between the ages of 12 and 18. We aim to run these programmes over a 10 week period between April and June 2023 once we have achieved our targets.
Community impact
These additional facilities will help us retain and increase our youth membership with a focus on providing additional opportunities for young females; increase participation in team events and provide a long term pathway towards our Senior teams and a life long dedication to our club. We aim to be a central sporting hub in our community welcoming to all.
This project successfully funded on 15th May 2023