Baseline Health Promotion Status of GAA Sports Clubs in Ireland Aoife Lane, Niamh Murphy and Alex Donohoe

Context GAA club in almost every community in Ireland; community identity central to GAA ethos GAA already doing a lot to promote health and wellbeing of members

Healthy Club Project Healthy Ireland: community and cross sectoral empowerment HSE and GAA developed and are piloting a healthy club initiative across 18 clubs in Ireland HI: framework for health and wellbeing 2013-2025 Initiatives, interventions to promote health Policy and executive support Physical, social, cultural environment Internal/external partners-health professionals

Study Aim: to carry out a process and impact evaluation of the Healthy Club Project Baseline assessment of the health promotion status of participating clubs; Healthy Club Questionnaire; HCI adapted from Kokko et al., (2009) - will be used as an indicator of change over time Focus groups; to describe initial development stage, implementation and evaluation of the project

Healthy Club Questionnaire Policy Ideology Practice Environment Juvenile Environment Healthy Club Questionnaire Healthy Club Index Partnerships Facilities Club Profile Communication

Non Playing Members: n=146 Club Profile (n=16) Average Membership Playing Members: n=408 Non Playing Members: n=146 Total Membership: n=544 No. of Coaches Basic: n=29 Advanced: n=14

Health Promotion Characteristics Average (0-1) Policy Health and well being ideals are written in the clubs constitution and regulations .23 Ideology The club promotes the ‘Go Games’ principles .89 Practice The club provides education on health issues or makes provisions for its members to receive such education .45 Environment Healthy food options are made available following sports activities .39 Juvenile Environment The club selects and approves coaches who have accredited coaching qualifications .55 Key: Higher scores = higher levels of health promotion

Health Promotion Characteristics Average (Min-Max) Health Promotion Category Policy Index (range 0-8) 3.86 (.50-7.0) Low Ideology Index (range 0-2) 1.72 (.75-2.0) High Practice Index (range 0-6) 3.25 (1.25-5.0) Moderate Environment Index (range 0-7) 4.63 (2.5-6.0) Juvenile Environment Index (range 0-11) 7.05 (4.0-9.0) Overall HP Score (range 0-34) 20.5 (13.75-27.75) Key: Higher scores = higher levels of health promotion

Health Promotion Status of Clubs

Partnerships 69% of clubs did perceive partners to be an important part of the club and indicated that they should formalise the partnership process The subsequent manifestation of the partnership in relation to meetings, committee involvement and recruitment of new partners was lower, ranging from 6-38%.

Why Health Promotion? Natural Progression: ‘It had been something we had been thinking about doing anyway…to use the club to do some sort of health initiative for our members, and the community.’ ‘I think we were already doing a lot of the things that a healthy club should be doing. Promoting health and inclusion and that before healthy club was ever mentioned. So when it did come up we thought well sure why not.’

Why Health Promotion? Community Responsibility and Club Development: ‘Owe it to our players and members to be able to help them out in other aspects of their life.’ ‘It’s about making the club relevant in our community and as I said the ethos trying to make sure that people in our community have a better experience by getting involved in the local GAA club.’ ‘If you have healthier players healthy in body and mind and it’s not just players , it’s parents, it’s mothers, it’s brothers, fathers whatever. If you have a healthier community you’ll want to kick on and do something on the field as well as off the field.’

Healthy Club Model Governance: Environment: Partnerships: Programmes: Lack of committee level, policy support Must show how health promotion can benefit day to day endeavours of club Environment: Physical environment/facilities Coaching environment requires attention Social and cultural environment embedded in GAA club Partnerships: Fundamental partnership between club and community is innate Disconnect between importance of external partners and reality of how this works Internal partners possibly excluded Programmes: Next phase: plan and administer programmes in response to community/club needs Engage in partnerships with health professionals/external agencies

Key Learnings Clubs are currently and willing to engage in efforts to promote health in the club and community….BUT Embed health promotion in the philosophy and agenda of the sports club Clarify the role of partnerships Integrate health promotion in coaching and playing (core functions of the club) Deliver and evaluate evidence based programmes Health and Wellbeing Committee and Officers, some level of reward/recognition for clubs taking part/deemed a Healthy Club Partnership toolkit Clarify role of stakeholders – GAA, Steering Committee, LSPs, HSE Assistance with volunteer recruitment – publicity drive, awareness raising Funding opportunities

Next Phase…. Clubs don’t want to be a Healthy Club for ‘one year and then forget about it’….they want to deliver something that is ‘going to be sustainable and effective in the future’

Thank you! @aoifelaneWIT @DHSESWIT

Start Up Phase Executive Support Reach Becoming a Healthy Club Finance ‘The group that’s come together have actually been a group that you know…there’s a couple of parents, herself is a player, coaches, we have people who weren’t doing very much else in the club which is great and that’s been really good.’ ‘The club has bought into it, our executive has bought into it, all the sub committees have bought into it and people are very much aware of what’s going on, when it’s going on.’ Becoming a Healthy Club Executive Support Committee Development National and Regional Support Reach Finance Needs Assessment There was an awareness that the concept and existence of the healthy club is to break even, not to make money, or ‘squeeze the life out of your own community’ or be a financial hindrance to clubs with one club emphasising that programmes were run with ‘no cost to the club’. ‘there was a great health promotion element just doing the survey…. people are just waiting to be asked and they had so many skills……we just didn’t know who they were ’ ‘It sort of put a different light on the club that the GAA we’re not just about collecting money at the gate going into an u/12 or u/14 that we are about getting out into the community.’

Needs Analysis 17 clubs, 1426 responses 49% of respondents were currently not active volunteers in their club/community 72% stated that they would like to get more involved in their club, which indicates the potential for greater engagement with the community through the healthy club concept.

Overview of Initiatives 79 planned initiatives across 16 clubs Independent (n) Combined Total Governance 4 2 6 Environment Programmes 25 44 69 Partnerships 3 43 46 Partners: HSE, LSPs, Foroige, schools, health professionals

Challenges Lack of Clarity Club Recognition People ‘We tried to target several things but to be honest with you there’s a few core that are relied on that would be here all the time. That’s our big problem we are struggling a bit on that front.’ ‘defining the project is really difficult’ and ‘getting my head round this has been the biggest thing. Challenges People Sustainability Making Connections Club Recognition Administration Lack of Clarity ‘Manpower is the real challenge and I would have a concern about the sustainability of it going forward after the end of the period. ‘Those high level partnerships they do add an extra layer of sophistication to the thing but is a lot of work as well, it’s a whole other meeting and planning.’ ‘Again they are coming to the meeting to give their ideas but they are not coming to work for us you know so we are definitely struggling a little bit.’ ‘X sits on the executive and he was able kind of move it up a bit and sell it up there, but that was a challenge for us selling it because like we we’re clearly, I was clearly told by certain members that we were a GAA club and really it’s about performance and it’s about on the pitch.’

Recommendations Support: national support from GAA, regional connections, local support network for future roll out of initiative Operational Suggestions: more help, be aware of needs and resources of the community Make connections with existing entities