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A total of nine Newry groups have been awarded funding following the latest granting of awards from the Brian Conlon Foundation this week. The Foundation in conjunction with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland will support local organisations and charities to advance education, promote amateur sport while providing opportunities for young people from the local area and assistance to local community organisations.
The Brian Conlon Foundation was set up in April 2022 following Brian's death back in 2019 at just 53 years of age. The First Derivatives founder was hugely proud of his home city and the foundation continues this ethos supporting local causes.
A Foundation spokesperson said “The connection Brian had with Newry is well known and each year we see the support for local groups expanding and reaching new people.
“Brian was passionate about creating opportunities in his hometown and making a real difference to local lives. The Foundation reflects Brian’s values and allows his spirit to live on whilst making a positive tangible contribution to the community he was so proud of.”
St Monica’s Boxing Club is one of the recipients of the 2024 awards. Tony Jennings from the club said “Our ‘Club Fit for Life’ programme is aimed at promoting the benefits of adopting healthier habits and delivering fitter families.
“The 12 week programme will include elements that are specifically tailored to young girls who have no previous experience of boxing, a Healthy Mind programme to offer support to young people to develop better mental health outcomes and a Healthy Me project that focuses on building deeper awareness amongst boxers of the need to develop and maintain a healthy, balanced diet.
“St Monica’s Boxing Club works with expert partners and collaborate on projects to help create equity engaging with young people in under-represented groups including travellers, recently arrived migrants, LGBTQI+ individuals and young people from all community backgrounds,
“This award from the Brian Conlon Foundation will help us extend and develop this essential work building key skills and confidence in our local community.”
Speaking on the announcement Orla Black, Grants Director at the Community Foundation said The now annual awards made by the Brian Conlon foundation are making a huge difference to Newry based groups. These awards cover activities ranging for arts programmes, the enhancement of sports in the area and projects for engaging and supporting young people.
“These awards are of course a very welcome boost to the Newry area allowing projects including a sports inclusion project, a youth group summer show and kayaking for children and adults with intellectual disabilities to go ahead and improve people’s physical and mental wellbeing and its fantastic to see new groups applying each year.”
Awards
- St Monicas Boxing Club Newry towards the Club Fit For Life project
- Newry City AFC Special Olympic Club towards floorball for children and adults with intellectual disabilities
- Drake Music Project Northern Ireland towards the Platform project
- Newpoint Players towards the Newpoint Players Youth Group Summer Show
- Crisis Cafe CIC towards the There4me project
- Sticky Fingers Arts towards The Imagination Lab 2024
- Home-Start Newry and Mourne towards the Family Group Support
- Newry Shamrocks GAA towards Developing Amateur Sport in Newry
- Lisdrum Youth FC towards the Summer of Community Connection 2024 project
