Since launching the Sporting Fingal Community Trust, we have set up and successfully run three very different programmes. The programmes have been hugely successful, but they have also have given valuable feedback into how best the Community Trust can be a successful tool in furthering Sporting Fingal’s ever growing tradition as a community football club.
The three programmes we have run to date are as follows:
1. ESOL ( English Spoken as an Other Language)
ESOL is a one-week intensive course designed to help children of non-Irish backgrounds learn English using Sport as an educational tool. We ran this course in Balbriggan Community College and Riversdale Community College in Corduff. Sporting Fingal players were on hand to offer coaching and advice on what it takes to be a League of Ireland Footballer.
2. Multi-Cultural Awareness Programme
The second programme was a multi-cultural themed activity programme, where the focus was on education and integration through sport, focussing on a variety of different sports and activities to break down barriers in society. Participants on this programme were given 6 weeks soccer training by the FAI and Sporting Fingal players in Glebe North which culminated in a multi-cultural world cup day. The winning team represented Balbriggan in the Foróige
Multi-Cultural World Cup in Galway and ended up winning this competition.
3. Sport Summer Camp
This was a one-week summer camp in Corduff Sports Centre that catered for 65 children aged 12-16 from the different youth projects in Dublin 15.The soccer specific camp was run on Corduff’s Astro pitch for the week with participants doing skills in the morning and then being split into teams for mini-leagues every afternoon. On the last day there was a finals day and medals and certificates were presented to participants by Sporting Fingal players who also gave a quick Q&A about the club.
This is just the beginning, and a number of other projects are planned for the future.
For further information on the Community Trust, contact Stephen McGinn on 087-9864611 or CommunityTrust@SportingFingal.ie