The Barrs have been part of the GAA Healthy Club project since 2013. During the last year the Healthy Club Team have continued to work to promote the health and well-being of our membership. The Members of the Healthy Club Team for 2021 were as follows: Janas Harrington (Chair), Denis Bohane, Ken McCarthy, Sinead Doolan, Anna McCarthy, Ray O’Mahony. We have recently welcomed David McCarthy, June Murphy and Lorna Bracken to our team.

Below is a short summary of some of our activities from 2021 - 2022

Healthy Club Overview 2022 

The Barrs have been part of the GAA Healthy Club project since 2013.  During the last year the Healthy Club Team have continued to work to promote the health and well-being of our membership.  The Members of the Healthy Club Team for 2022 were as follows: 

Janas Harrington (Chair), Denis Bohane, Ken McCarthy, Sinead Doolan, Anna McCarthy, Ray O’Mahony, Dave McCarthy, Lorna Bracken, June Murphy. 

Below is a short summary of some of our activities from Jan-Dec 2022. 

Physical Activity:  

• We participated in the Irish Life Steps and Ireland Lights up.  Our Blue Mover’s group have continued to promote our weekly walks for our club members. These walks have been a great success, particularly in the ‘off season’ when on-pitch activity isn’t as busy.   
• The Healthy Club Team and Blue Movers were shortlisted for a Cork Sports Partnership Community and Health Award.  
  
  Mental Fitness:  
• 5-ways to wellbeing: Our 5-ways to wellbeing wall was launched down by pitch 3.  These were developed to showcase exercises, activities, mindfulness and self care tips.  
• A number of our Healthy Club team undertook the Healthy Club Officer Training and the Critical Response Plan training delivered by the Croke Park Community and Health Department.  

Healthy Eating 

• We continued to give out fruit every Saturday to our Street and Camogie section.  This year we also extended this to the underage LGFA on Sunday mornings.  This has been made possible by Ryan’s  SuperValu  who have committed to providing fruit every week-Thanks to Der and Kieran Edwards for delivering this each week.  
• Janas Harrington delivered Nutrition Talks to a number of teams and individuals over the year. 
  
  Substance Use and Gambling 
• The Healthy Club Team brought the GAA Substance Use Policy to the Club Executive.  This has now been ratified by the Executive Committee.   
  
  General 
• Denis Bohane and Janas Harrington represented the club at the National Healthy Club Conference which took place in Croke Park in November 2022.  The conference was addressed by Janas Harrington, Chair of the National Health and Wellbeing Committee.  The contribution of the Barrs to the Healthy Club Project since its inception in 2013 was acknowledged.   
• At the launch of the Cork Co. Board Health and Wellbeing Committee for new healthy clubs, Janas Harrington was invited to present the Barrs journey since 2013 at an event in Pairc Uí Caoimh.   
• Adoption of the Smoke and Vape free policy by the Club Executive.  This was launched in December 2022.  With funding from Croke Park we have erected signage.  Over the coming months we will erect further signage and will run some awareness raising campaignsWe thank everybody for your support in spreading the word on this important health promoting initiative. We qualified for a grant of €500 for meeting these criteria.   In 2023, we are aiming for the Silver and Gold Level Healthy Club Awards.   
• We now have a designated notice board where we will post regular updates, along with a designated tab on the club website.  

JANUARY 2021:

• We participated in the Irish Life Steps Challenge which led to the launch of our ‘Blue Movers’ walking group which encourages people to feel connected by sharing pictures on social media.
• We offered six places on the Healthy Food Made Easy to our members which was delivered online by the Local Sports Partnership. This ran for 1 hour per week for 6 weeks.

MARCH 2021:

• We launched a club support intiative to address mental health and provide support and signposting to our members, their families and beyond. It is a poster, and we encourage members to take a photo, to have it hand if/when needed.

• On March 18th 2021, National Social Prescribing Day, we launched a social prescribing initiative. Social prescribing is centred around the practice of helping people within a community to connect with supports, services, advice, information, hobbies and activities. We produced an infographic and a short social media clip to encourage any member finding things particularly difficult or looking for support to contact a designated person. It is important to highlight that this isn’t a counselling service or an emergency service. What it does offer is signposting towards specialised supports and services within the community. (See attached video clip).
• To celebrate Mothers Day, the Healthy Club Team hosted a virtual coffee morning to raise funds for Edel House a charity which supports homeless Women and Children in Cork City. In total we raised €665

APRIL 2021

• We were successful in a funding application to the Sports and Recreational Facilities Resilience Fund 2021 for €1500. The project related to this fund is a 2-step process:
  1. On the feast day of St. Finbarr, the patron saint of our club, we were absolutely delighted that we were extending the hand of friendship out intothe community. We reached into every section of our locality and made contact with all of the schools, the drug and alcohol recovery centre, the disability services, local business, the refugee community and all local residents. On the day, we had two groups who came to join in with the opportunities we provided for Fun, Fitness and Movement. We had 10 people who took part in a workout with Edward Finn of One Arena Fitness. The group was varied and included friends and neighbours and two sets of sisters. We had a group of 8 who came  from residential homes locally under the auspices of  Cope Foundation.  They took part in a Fun movement session with Anna McCarthy of Lets Yoga Cork and One Arena.   After this they were taken on a walking tour of the grounds and saw a host of sports and activities taking place but also got an appreciation of the scope of the space.   We hope this is the beginning of new connection between the club and local communities. We were delighted with the turnout this morning, the atmosphere was wonderful  we are committed to building on the foundations put in place today.  We were also delighted that we had contributed towards giving people an opportunity to engage with activity on  a day that incorporated National Walking Day, European Week of Sport and GAA Inclusion Week.
  2. To create something more permanent throughout the facility that can be used by individuals and groups when they come to our grounds. To this end we now endeavour to create a wellbeing trail around the grounds, with signs to showcase exercises, activities, mindfulness and self care tips. We hope to add to this by including signage that will represent distances around the grounds so that people can track how far they have moved. We hope the wellbeing trail/walk, which in itself also encourages people to walk around the extent of the complex, will offer groups and individuals, families and friends an opportunity to engage with movement and make connection within the confines of the complex. This work is being led by Sinead Doolan-and is currently in progress 3. A number of our Healthy Club team undertook the Healthy Club Officer Training delivered by Croke Park
• Ryan’s SuperValu committed to providing fruit every Saturday for our Street League training. On the first return to play, we had over 300 children between camogie, hurling, football. The fruit was met with smiles from children and parents alike. This will continue for the remainder of this playing season.

OCTOBER 2021

• We initiated a weekly walking group on Tuesday from 7-8, meeting in the club and taking local routes. This initiative is led by Ray O’Mahony
• An online workshop was arranged for our teenage camogie section, focussed on women in sport with a specific emphasis on retention. This workshop was led by Move2Be.
• During the October mid-term break, coinciding with the online workshop we organised the ‘Super Games’ with the teenage camogie section. These were 7-aside non-competitive games. Teams were a mix of ages and abilities and everyone had a chance to play. The Super Games initiative was a success with great feedback from the girls who took part. This initiative was led by Ken McCarthy.

NOVEMBER 2021

• The weekly walking group was extended from one night per week to two nights per week (Tuesday and Thursday)
• Members of the Healthy Club Team attended the National Healthy Club Conference. The conference was addressed by Janas Harrington, Chair of the National Health and Wellbeing Committee. The contribution of the Barrs to the Healthy Club Project since its inception in 2013 was acknowledged.

GOING FORWARD...

The GAA Healthy Club Project is now entering it’s 5 th phase, starting with just 16 clubs plus two mentor clubs in 2013 (The Barrs were one of those mentor clubs) to now over 500 clubs involved with the project. Going into phase 5, all existing clubs will be given ‘foundation level’ status with the opportunity to strive for Silver or Gold status. Given our history with this project we would expect to strive for gold status and would hope that the Club Executive would continue to support our efforts in this regard. We have also registered for the 2022 Ireland Lights Up and the Irish Life Steps Challenge. We wish to start this year as we ended last year continuing to promote the health and wellbeing of our members and the wider community. We encourage you all to help us promote these initiatives, and invite you to join some of our weekly walks. To join the steps challenge, download the My Life App from play store or Apple Store, Find Munster GAA Every Step Counts, and select St Finbarrs.

We are always happy to link in with any team or group within our membership.