Longstone Residents’ Association are good sports
A local residents’ group in Armagh are championing better physical health and boosting mental wellbeing in the area by offering the local community free sports equipment.
Longstone Residents’ Association are providing the equipment for the whole community to use with the help of a community grant worth almost £5,000 from the Housing Executive.
David Wilson, Chairperson for Longstone Residents’ Association, said:
“Our multi-use games area opened in 2019, but although this a great facility there was no equipment for residents to make use of its full potential.
“Thanks to funding from the Housing Executive, we now have a wide range of free to use sports equipment for the whole community to utilise ranging from hockey sticks, skipping ropes, multi-use nets and rebounder nets.
“A storage space for our new sports equipment was also purchased with the help from the community grant.
“We’re making great use of our equipment with a six-week sports programme for children in the area which is proving extremely popular.
“Local children are now getting more opportunities to improve their physical health, make friends and most importantly have fun.”
Michelle Hazlett, the Housing Executive’s Good Relations Officer for the South area, added:
“We are thrilled to support Longstone Residents’ Association as they continue to encourage young people to be as active as possible.
“A huge difference will be made with the introduction of sports equipment as it opens up a varied range of activities that previously did not take place within Longstone.
“Seeing children from the local area making full use of equipment is fantastic but it is also really encouraging to see older residents benefitting from the equipment and using it as an opportunity to meet friends and neighbours.”