Belfast Sports Clubs Awarded Clubmark Status

Sports clubs from across Belfast have been awarded the seal of approval from the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor John Finucane.

A range of successful clubs achieved their Clubmark status, the recognition provided from Belfast City Council's quality accreditation scheme, which supports clubs to become the best practice sports facilities.

Organisations are graded in bronze, silver and gold, based on a number of different factors, by the council and Sports NI.

Effective management, community engagement, quality coaching and competition, creating a safe environment and safeguarding members are all taken into consideration during the accreditation process.

Successful clubs include Belmont Bowls Club, CIYMS Tennis Club, St Malachys OB FC, Santos FC, 22nd Old Boys FC, Patrick Sarsfields GAC and Lagan Valley Orienteers.

Councillor Finucane was delighted to see so many clubs awarded with the accreditation. He said: "It highlights how ambitious our clubs are in being the best they can be and in creating the right environments for their members to thrive and succeed at the highest level in their given sports.

"The work being carried out in sports clubs in communities right across the city is fantastic and I'm delighted that they're being given the recognition they deserve through our council Clubmark scheme."

Successful applicants can benefit from club development opportunities, development opportunities for coaches, administrators and volunteers, discounted courses as part of the council's coach education scheme and funding from the Support for Sport grant scheme.

Jane Mounsey, Outreach and Equality Officer at CIYMS Tennis explained the benefits of Belfast Clubmark for her club. She said: "Working towards our Bronze Clubmark provided us with an opportunity to asses our standards in coaching, safety and equality, to set goals through a development plan and to audit our standards in all areas. Through the process of obtaining Bronze we were able to improve and consolidate all areas of our club, and to build an active outreach department into our club.

"To obtain our Silver Clubmark, we were able to demonstrate our thriving outreach department showing active commitment to integrating those players with a disability, to continue our outreach work into the community and our engagement with local schools."

Ms Mounsey continued: "We are currently working on our Gold Clubmark and all our coaches and volunteers have just taken a further disability awareness course to strengthen our knowledge and show adherence to our development plan. We are very grateful to Belfast City Council, Ulster Tennis and DSNI for their continued support."

More information on the Clubmark accreditation scheme can be found online.



(JG/CM)