Mid and East Antrim nets funds to unite clubs through sport

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has secured funding from the European Union's PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programme Body, to roll out a series of initiatives aimed at 'uniting people through sport'.
Submitted image.Submitted image.
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PEACE IV Sports Club Twinning Project is aimed at creating a sports project between clubs from different parts of the Mid and East Antrim Borough.

Council aims to create five partnerships across the council area to participate in coach education sessions and community relations workshops, up until March 2020.

The council will fund all costs associated with the programme, including room hire, facilitators and other additional costs. It is anticipated the funding will be worth in the region of £10,000 per partnership.

Through a partnership approach, the council will seek to deliver five Sports Club Twinning Projects with a total maximum value of £10,000 per Twinning.

Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Cllr. Lindsay Millar, said: “Our Peace IV programme is aimed at helping build relationships between sports clubs of different religious backgrounds.

“The Sports Development Unit will establish a programme of Coach Education and Good Relations workshops which will explore differences and similarities and help to address respect and mutual understanding and the Twinning’s will come together and take part in a collaborative project.

“Constituted sports clubs will partner together (Twin) and make an application to jointly participate in the Sports Club Twinning Programme. Each club will nominate a minimum number of club members (total of 40 participants per Twinning) to undergo a minimum participation of 28 hours per member contact time in the programme which will also include two exchange visits to each club twinned. There will be a minimum of two and a maximum of four clubs partnered per Twinning.

“Clubs will be given a choice of coach education workshops to participate in with a maximum of 20 to attend each workshop. There are compulsory community relations workshops and participants must attend at least two community relations workshops.

All participants must complete at least six from 13 Sport NI Coach Development Workshops including;

Coaching Children and Young People:

·Go Coaching

·Coaching Children 5-12 - The Next Generation

·How to Coach the Fundamentals of Movement

·Delivering Engaging Sessions for Young People

Coaching Craft:

·Effective Coach Communication

·Delivering Engaging Sessions for Adults

·Coaching Mindset

·Mind Games: Mental Skills for Competition

·Analysing Your Coaching

Talent Foundation Series

·What is Talent?

·A Head for Talent

·Talent Across the Ages

·Getting Better, Better

Community Relations Workshops (compulsory)

·Diversity in Society; Prejudice & Discrimination

·Personal and Community Identity; Flags, Symbols and Emblems; Shared History

·Principles of Restorative Practice; Conflict Management.

For further details regarding the workshops please refer to the information and guidance notes, or make contact with Gary Boyd, community sports development officer, Tel: 028 2563 3316, Email: [email protected]

Clubs must jointly agree to place at least 30 coaches (with a participant breakdown stipulated under Peace IV funding guidelines) on each of at least six selected coach education workshops.

Workshops can run more than once or more than six can be selected as long as minimum numbers of eight can be secured for each workshop.

All participants must also engage in at least two community relations workshops and two club exchange visits to each of the twinned clubs involved for a minimum of two hours per visit.

On completion of the targets above each club involved in the individual Twinning will then agree to attain and jointly share equipment after the initial twinning project has ended. The total value of this equipment will be determined by the remainder of the £10,000 twinning budget after the coach education and community eelations section of the programme is complete.

All participating clubs are asked to work together to ensure the agreed minimum of 30 coaches complete 28 hours contact time through two compulsory community relations workshops and two exchange visits as well as at least six coach Education workshops to qualify for the equipment budget.

Procurement and purchasing of the equipment will be handled by Mid and East Antrim Sports Development Unit and eligible items will be only taken from the following list:

·Club Sports Equipment

·GPS Equipment

·Video analysis equipment

·Heart rate monitoring equipment.

The programme will run from 1 January until 31 March 2020 and each club will jointly agree dates, times and venues with MEABC sports development staff for the coach education programme and community relations workshops to take place.

Each workshop and exchange visit will last between two and three hours and any costs associated with this will be covered by the programme funds.

Council’s Sports For All project will fund all costs associated with the programme including facility hire, transport, facilitators and catering. Programme funding for each Twinning project to be to the value of £10,000.

Applications can be made at any time via an expression of interest form available via email from [email protected] and decisions on successful Twinnings will be made by an assessment panel.

For more information, go to www.midandeastantrim.gov.uk/