The key aims of the Local Sports Partnerships are to increase participation in sport and to ensure that local resources are used to best effect.
The outcomes Sport Ireland seek from the Local Sports Partnerships are:
- Enhanced planning of sport at local level
- Increased levels of local participation, especially amongst specific target groups such as older people, girls and women, people with disabilities, unemployed people and those who live in identified disadvantaged communities
- Enhanced local coach deployment
- Club development
- Volunteer training
- Local directories of sports bodies and facilities
- Better use of existing facilities
- Clear priorities for local facility provision and improvement, with related quality management initiatives
- School/club/community and possibly school-NGB links
- Local sports events
The 3 main functions of the Local Sports Partnerships nationally are:
Information: establish a consultative forum, initiate research, compile a sports directory & database, identify needs and resources to form the basis of local planning
Education: overall objective to provide quality opportunities for education and training at local level, provide training courses targeting volunteers, provide access to sports specific courses through the National Governing Bodies of Sport
Implementation: develop a strategic plan for local sport, appoint a professional administrator and secure related support services, select participation programmes for LSPs modified to suit local needs, increase impact of national programmes delivered locally, market and promote sport
The key tasks of DLR Sports Partnership include:
- Building on work already being carried out by partner agencies
- Establishing a sustainable structure to assist all those involved in local sports development (e.g. quality training)
- Rolling out Irish Sports Council participation programmes
- Increasing the usage of existing local resources and
- Creating & implementing a strategic plan for long-term local sports development
