Rossa's Future GAA Programme

Aim

To provide a fun environment for children in our area helping to develop fundamental skills and friendships through Gaelic Games.

In 2021/22 O’Donovan Rossa GAC, based at the Shaws Road Complex in Belfast, had 32 teams across all codes and a range of ages playing in formal leagues of Hurling, Football, Camogie, Ladies Football and Handball.

Each week we have around 600 players actively involved in Gaelic Games, supported by over 80 voluntary mentors.  Over the year, they will play approximately 400 matches while completing 800 skills and fitness training sessions.

At O’Donovan Rossa GAC, across all codes, our aim is to provide a programme post Covid which focuses on the FUN aspect of Gaelic Games for the youth of our area and to allow them to develop their skills in a well structured programme which encourages interaction and friendship among the children.

Community Impact

During the past two years, the impact of the COVID 19, has had a huge effect on the younger members of our club. 

Our children were unable to take part in games, training and social activities that would have been the norm at our club. Covid reduced the ability of our volunteer coaches to engage and help develop the children's skills and more importantly it prevented the children from having fun and making new friends. Covid also had an impact on our ability to raise funds to pay for facilities hire.

Our appeal for funding is focused on our youth (Rossa's Future) and their wellbeing, particularly in the areas of connectivity and being active. In returning from Covid, our club wants to ensure that every opportunity is provided for our youth to have these qualities of life returned to them.

What we intend to do:

We will actively encourage all the youth in our area to come out and use our facilities and to participate in all of the FUNdamentals programmes available alongside The Rossa's Future Development Programme. These programmes will be delivered by our volunteer coaches who have been trained to help deliver these programmes in a manner best suited to our youth. We will use the money raised to rent facilities at Colinglen and Sportlann over the next 5 months to help us deliver the project. This new project will allow us to develop our young children's skill set during a period when our grass pitches are not open. It will allow the children to continue to develop and grow friendships post Covid during the winter months and keep both the children and their parents involved with the club.

The Rossa's Future Programme will following the structure below:

Under 6 - Under 7 : FUN and Participation Physical Literacy Agility Balance Co-ordination Warm up principle

Under 8 - Under 9 : Advanced Physical Literacy (PL) Incorporate the ball into the key PL components: ABC’S, RJTS, CPK 

Under 10 - Under 11: Positive Attitude to Sport Develop self confidence, Spatial Awareness-light pressure in grids. Small sided games, 5v3– 4v2 – 6v6 

Our Targets

Increase our youth membership- We will continue to promote and provide the support to allow children to join our club using our community and school outreach programmes.

Coach/volunteer education - We will embark on an education scheme to ensure every new and current coach is qualified to a minimum of Foundation Level.  

Equipment -  The club will purchase relevant equipment required to run the programme.

Health and Wellbeing - we want to run a raft of FUN initiatives/events to promote healthy lifestyles and to create environments for children to enjoy and interact in each others company. 

Facilities- We will provide into training slots at "The Dome" in order to provide a multipurpose training facility throughout the winter months for our U-4 to U-10 children.

How we will spend the money raised:

Your support for Rossa GAA  will provide resources for our children. With the money raised we will be able to offer  players with the best possible resources enabling them to excel in their sporting and social development. Our volunteer coaches will continue to give their time and continue to help develop the future of Rossa. 

With your help we will: 

• Upskill our coaches 
• Develop each player's skills set
• Purchase relevant equipment and other coaching aids which will be beneficial for making our sessions enjoyable for our youth members
• Continue to hire the indoor facilities which allow us to run winter programmes for our U-4 to U-13.
• Continue to promote friendship and enjoyment through our Rossa's Future Programme.

This project successfully funded on 24th December 2022