Cross Border Sport
Community Relations through Sport – An Overview
Community Relations through Sport proposes to address social exclusion, racism and sectarianism through the medium of sport, physical activity and education. The project is funded by the Donegal CDB Peace and Reconciliation Partnership. The Partnership have awarded €906,454 in Small Grants to 37 different organisations around the county. The Small Grants Scheme, supported by the European Union European Regional Development Fund, is the first in a series of elements of the Donegal Peace and Reconciliation Action Plan 2008-2010 that will be rolled out over the next 2 years to organisations in Donegal working to deepen and strengthen the Peace Process at a local level.
The projects overall goal is to address social exclusion issues by engaging young people between the ages of 14 and 17 years of ages from all religious backgrounds through a programme of capacity and confidence building, improving self esteem thus contributing to a more vibrant and inclusive community. This will be achieved by a mixture of structured sports and educational activities and programmes.
Objectives
- Promoting a model of sport and education to raise an awareness of the social exclusion issues and prejudices, which currently exist within border communities of Newtoncunningham, St. Johnston, Lifford and Raphoe in Co. Donegal and communities within the Strabane and Derry City Council areas.
- Allowing the young people to develop their leadership and teamwork skills in coordinating, developing and delivering a festival of multi sports and physical activities in each location and on a cross border basis. 4 local festival plus 1 central festival 500 participants
- Providing specialised 4-week sports specific training module in each identified areas (4) of a cross section of majority, minority and traditional sports including soccer, rugby, Gaelic games, judo, cricket and badminton.
- The 4-week training & education programme will also integrate short workshops on sports leadership, community relations, active citizenship, cultural diversity & peace and reconciliation. 4 weeks x 6 sports = 24 sessions x 4 hours = 96 hours training.
- Bringing all the young people together for residential sessions in order to develop social contacts and promote the ethos of the programme.
- Providing a club/school link in each of the identified areas.
- Creating a forum for coaches and sports organisations to come together to share ideas for future development within the area.
Please use the links below to view the projects
NCDI/ St. Johnstone (Badminton) NCDI/ St. Johnston & Carrigans (Cricket) Lifford Youth Reach (GAA) The Whistle Project (GAA) Melvin Youth Group, Strabane & Youth Forum, Castlederg (Soccer)
Updates (18th January 2010)
Community Relations Through Sport (Soccer)