Sporting Community Change

The following represent an overview of a number of programmes run under the Sporting Community Change programme in conjunction with the Local Sports Partnerships.

First Sports / Multi Sports Activity

This project has been running since the inception of the Get Back Challenge, and involves providing a range of sports for children in designated disadvantaged areas of the City. The multi sports programme takes place in St Mary’s Park, Southill, Ballinacurra Weston and Moyross, and allows the children in these areas access to structured activities, with trained professionals, who teach the children sports skills in a fun and safe environment.
This project has become the backbone of the Get Back Challenge in terms of providing children with the opportunity to experience various different sports. The activities that are incorporated into this programme are driven by the groups themselves and the programme is developing each year because of the relationship that the Sports Partnership Development Officers are building in the local communities, Last year nearly 300 children took part in regular multi sports clubs, who would not have been members of other clubs and therefore would not have had access to regular structured sports activities on a regular basis.

Activity Crèche Programmes

In partnership with the City Sports Partnership eight crèches throughout the city identified as catering for children from socially disadvantaged areas were provided with activity equipment in order to provide them with structured activity programmes for children attending the crèches.
The success of this initiative has led to the creation of a weekly activity programme conducted in all the eight crèches conducted by an Irish Sports Council trained leader in the area of activity programmes for small children.  It is the first time that these children have access to structured activity while the crèches now have access to equipment which was beyond their budgetary reach.
In 2011 the students of the UL Kemmy Business School MSC Marketing programme organised a wide range of Get BACK fundraising activities that generated funds for indoor and outdoor equipment for use by children in a number of crèches in the area.

Twelve Sports of Summer

The aim of this programme is to introduce local teenagers to a number of different sports over the summer months. The Limerick City Sports Partnership in conjunction with local Limerick clubs provide young people with taster sessions of 12 different sports. Sports may include Soccer, Rugby, GAA, Basketball (Team Sports) Athletics x 2 weeks, Tennis, Golf, Fishing (individual sport) Canoeing, Rowing and a trip to a water sports centre (water/adventure sports).
Participants experience a wide range of activities and find a sport that they enjoy. This programme is an intensive programme for specific teenagers that would have been identified by groups as needing extra provision in the summer months.

Boxing Academy

The Get BACk Challenge was delighted to support the development of the new St Francis Boxing Academy launched by Limerick’s Andy Lee.

GAP Programme – (Girls Activity Programme)

The impact of the GAP programme starting in 2009 was phenomenal. Over 50 girls from across the city have been actively engaging in physical activity at least one afternoon per week. While the health benefits of engaging in physical activity are obvious, with GAP there are many benefits other than health.  The majority of these girls had no interest in physical Activity prior to this programme being introduced. PE classes in school were spent in classrooms because they would not bring gear or refused to take part in organised structured programmes run by the respective schools’ PE departments. As most the girls were from disadvantaged communities, non participation further alienated them from their peers and the school authorities.
GAP’s innovative approach to Physical Activity meant that the girls were not taking part in sessions that they were being forced into. The girls picked and chose their own activities. This immediately gave them a sense of ownership of the activities and created a sense of loyalty among the groups. Girls that never undertook any exercise were now organising their own sessions and motivating each other to attend. The range of activities covered to date has included Aerobics, Dance, Soccer, Swimming, Aqua Aerobics, Boxercise, Tai Bo and Rugby. The range of activities chosen by the girls proves they have interest in Physical Activity but often don’t get an input into deciding what they do. GAP allows them to do this. They decide what they would like to try, organise a taster session and then decide whether or not they want to keep this activity on for a number of weeks. All skills being used here i.e. teamwork, planning, budgeting will stand to these girls in later life, but has also boosted their self confidence and their sense of being a part of something as opposed to always being on the outside looking in.
Feedback from schools from which the participants came from has been very positive. There has been a noticeable change in girl’s behaviour. They seem to be much more willing to engage in school PE classes and some girls have joined with school teams as a direct result of taking that initial step to Physical Activity with the Girls Activity Programme (GAP). A number of the girls have joined local Rugby teams and are also getting involved in the Community Games both as participants and as volunteers with younger groups within their communities. A number of girls’ activities have been set up outside of school hours as a direct result of Gap participants wanting to do more exercise, but also because they have friends who no longer attend school but want to avail of exercise and physical activity.

Schools – Fitkidz Kilometer Walking Challenge

The Get BACk Challenge, in association with Limerick City Sports Partnership launched the FITKIDZ KILOMETER WALKING involving 5 primary schools with 6 classes- 105 children and their teachers- attended the launch.  Schools came from all over the city: CBS Boys, Presentation Girls, St John’s Girls and St John’s Boys and St Munchin’s Girls.  The programme is being rolled out across a number of other schools this year.
The FITKIDZ KILOMETER WALKING CHALLENGE programme is offered to all the DEIS primary schools. It involves Rosemary Ryan, Limerick Olympian visiting the schools and managing this activity, where each class (5th & 6th Class) will get a wall chart with 10 Km, and stickers will be placed on each milestone once the class have completed each kilometre. Each child will also receive a booklet with the 10Km with a set of stickers.
The event was launched in UL and all participants completed the first kilometre in UL, together. Caitriona McMahon, Limerick’s top female Race Walker, gave tips to the pupils and coached walking technique with some promising young walkers.  Each class will continue walking one kilometre per week around their school to complete the 10km Walking Challenge.
In School and After School Sports Clubs
This programme introduces local school children from 22 Primary and Secondary Schools in the Regeneration Areas to a number of different sporting activities to encourage them to continue to participate in sport or physical activity, outside of the school setting. The sports and activities that will be supported are minority sports that do not have NGB development Officers, and will help us to show children the diversity of Sport and Physical Activity (e.g. Gymnastics, Basketball, swimming, Olympic Handball etc.)
The delivery process is through each school being provided with a 6 week programme of both in school provision and a 6 week programme of a more specific after schools club, which interested children will join. From this club interested children will be channelled into the multi sports clubs and drop in sessions happening in the communities.
The key objective is to provide structured sport provision through the schools systems and provide children the opportunity to access a broader range of activities.

Teen Fit Marathon Programme

One of the recent programmes that ran involved partnerships across a range of organisations resulting in great outcomes.  These included participants returning to education, increased levels of sports participation, working with other sports groups and going to represent Limerick at the World Scholar games.
Eight teenagers from across the city undertook a training programme under the guidance of the Limerick City Sports Partnership and supported by the Get BACk Challenge.  A range of local experts volunteered their time to put the group through a structured programme in the lead up to the 10km element of the Great Limerick Run taking place on the May Bank Holiday weekend.
It is hoped that the Teen Fit programme will continue to create more awareness of activity, nutrition and exercise benefits among young people and this group will become role models for their friends and community.
The panel of experts included
Catherine Norton, Mid West Dietics – Group Nutritional Advisor
Dr Cian O’Neill – Dept of Sports Science, UL, Group Fitness Advisor
Carmell de Mello – University Arena, UL – Group Fitness Programme Advisor
Tracey Mahedy and Liam Cantwell, Limerick City Sports Partnership, Programme Coordinators
In their training period they were involved in a number of different fitness based training session and gained an insight into how physical activity can increase their fitness levels. Carmell Demello from the University Arena took the lead on these sessions and she has been an inspirational to this group. She has introduced them to spinning, body pump, gym sessions and interval running programmes. She has motivated the group to continue to train and offered to provide all participants with individual or extra group sessions on their request.This is a great achievement, because it has been hard work to motivate the group, as some of them have never taken part in any structured physical activity, like this, outside of the school setting, and we had feared that some would drop out. Thanks to the hard work of Carmell and the Limerick City Sports Partnership Development Officers, Liam Cantwell and Tracy Mahedy, who have managed to bring them to this point.
Dr Cian O Neill from the University Of Limerick PESS Department took time out of his busy schedule to put the group through a number of fitness tests. The aim of these tests was to assess their current fitness levels but also give them a platform to compare in the further. Cian spent time talking to the group and encouraged them to continue with their training. He acknowledged the training that they have already done and promoted the importance of increasing the number of training sessions per week in preparation for race day.
To ensure that the group are fully prepared for the 10km run, Catherine Norton from the Mid West Dietetic Clinic came in to speak with the group. She discussed the importance of a healthy diet and the need to bring water to every training session in order to stay hydrated. She gave them individual food record charts to fill out and she will examine each person’s diet on an individual basis.
The participants in the Teen Fit Group started this programme not knowing many people in the group but over the programme become a team. Each person brings their own unique characteristic to each session and they motivated each other to continue and their success in completing the Great Limerick Run was testimony to their personal efforts and the willingness to work with the many great people who helped them along the way.

Easter Camps

The Get BACk Challenge has funded the development of local Easter Activity Camps aimed at children aged between 9 and 13 years (4th – 6th class).  This support has enabled the development officers from the IRFU, FAI, GAA and LCSP to work together to deliver Easter Camps in the Regeneration Areas of Limerick City.
The ethos of the camps was to create a culture of being part of a team, and using school holidays to achieve something positive. At the moment it is customary for children in these areas to stay in bed all day, and not get out of their pyjamas. We want to encourage the children to “get up, and be active” during their school holidays. We believe that this can encourage young people to expect more out of life and discourage the lack of enthusiasm that surrounds them, in their everyday lives.
The vision for the Camps is to offer activity day camps on the doorstep, using local resources, such as school facilities, local community halls and sports clubs. The children that we will be catering for would not even have dreamt of attending a sports camp, as they all incur a huge cost that is out of their reach.
Other camps on offer run in areas that these children would be unable to attend because they have no form of transport, or their parents are not in a position to drop them off and collect them, for personal and social reasons. The Easter Camps are hosted in Moyross, St Mary’s and Southill/Ballinacurra Weston with great success.