Published on:
24
April 2014
Residents of Clackmannanshire are benefitting from a wide range of sporting opportunities provided by the Council's Sports Development Service, the Education, Sport and Leisure Committee has heard.
Working as part of the Making Clackmannanshire Better programme, the service offers activities for all age ranges, from babies to older people. Indicative figures for the financial year 2013/14 show a Council budget for sports development of £305,228, and show the service has been successful in gaining an additional £399, 892 of external funding.
Sports Development is the mechanism through which initiatives such as Active Schools, Community Sport Hub, Cashback, Schools of Sport, health and fitness activities and other sports and physical activity initiatives are resourced and delivered.
Sports Development has worked with the Early Years Collaborative with specialist support from the Active Start team to provide physical activity and movement co-ordination for babies and pre-school children. They work with parent and toddler groups, childminders, nursery staff and families to help promote the importance of physical activity from the start of children's lives.
Working in partnership with other bodies has helped to attract the impressive level of external funding and has created opportunities to try new ideas and look for innovative ways to engage groups like young people and their families to become and remain physically active.
Activities taking part in Clackmannanshire include Active Girls dance leadership project, Bikeability training for adults and pupils, Jump To It basketball initiative, sports and fitness courses, training for coaches and leaders and holiday programmes for young people.
Committee Convener Ellen Forson said: "The diversity and impact that the Council's Sports Development team has throughout our communities is impressive, and working collaboratively with our partners, they are helping to Make Clackmannanshire Better. The activities and programmes the team delivers are working towards reaching our goals of increasing participation in sport and leisure and in those leading more active lives, reducing levels of childhood obesity and improving adult health, reducing the gap in life expectancy rates and improving the quality of live in all our communities."