Community Coaching Programme

The Irish Sports Council recently secured Dormant Accounts funding for the delivery of Community Coaching Training Programmes for Jobseekers in each county in the Republic of Ireland. The Coaching programmes are to be delivered through the Network of Local Sports Partnerships (including the Laois Sports Partnership) The Community Coaching Programme is focused on successfully assisting unemployed people to gain employment, coaching, volunteering and further education opportunities in the sports sector for example as coaches, referees, physical activity leaders etc. It will provide the participants with practical and theoretical sport-related skills and help them find relevant work experience in their local community. It will also contribute to the promotion of both physical and mental health amongst participants and in the community through the subsequent employment and/or volunteering work carried out by participants. The specific aims and objectives for the programme, as identified by the Irish Sports Council, are set out below: Aim: Delivery of specialised training and education courses for jobseekers Objective:  Assist unemployed people to become qualified as coaches, referees, physical activity leaders etc  Improve the participants’ job prospects within the sports industry  Motivate participants to pursue the progression routes which have been identified as part of the programme (employment, coaching, volunteering, further education, etc)  Promotion of positive mental health through participation in sport; both for the participants themselves and in the communities in which they are based  Provision of coaching in disability, school, community and youth club settings  Provision of coaching in the sports where there are no full-time development officers