Women on Water wins award for RYA Northern Ireland
RYA Northern Ireland is celebrating after clinching a prestigious award at the Active, Fit and Sporty Awards ceremony, which was held at the Crowne Plaza, Belfast, during March.
It was the first time that the Female Sports Forum has held the awards and RYA Northern Ireland was nominated in two categories – National Governing Body Champion Award and the Media Award.
With many worthy nominees in the running, RYA Northern Ireland was crowned the winner of the National Governing Body Champion Award for its Women on Water (WOW) initiative.
RYA Northern Ireland’s Active Clubs co-ordinator, Lisa McCaffrey, who runs the programme, said: “We are delighted and proud to receive this award and we hope to continue to work with the Female Sports Forum to create exciting opportunities for females within sport.”
Explaining the success of the WOW programme, Lisa said: “WOW began in 2016 with the aim to provide a pathway for female participation within our sport. It is a fantastic opportunity for females to try sailing at low cost, concentrating on learning to sail, having fun and meeting new friends. Since 2016 over 12 clubs and centres have been running WOW programmes, giving more than 500 participants the opportunity to get on the water. The programme has been such a success that last year we brought together a group of volunteers who organised a festival to celebrate, with more than 40 women taking to the water.”
Lisa went on to say: “RYA Northern Ireland would like to take this opportunity to thank all our WOW clubs, centres and volunteers who have been running programmes for the last three years. This award goes to all our boating community including clubs, centres, volunteers and all the participants.”
Jackie Patton, chairman of RYA Northern Ireland, said: “It is an honour for RYANI to be shortlisted in two categories and to receive this award. It is recognition of the dedication of our volunteers, in particular highlighting the visibility of female success within our sport. Inspiring role models can have a significant impact on participation. This is very much in evidence with our Women on Water programme."
The 2020 Women on Water festival was scheduled to take place at Carrickfergus Sailing Club with Belfast Lough Sailability on June 6, 2020. For latest information, contact Lisa McCaffrey by email: Lisa.mccaffrey@rya.org.uk
The Active, Fit and Sporty Awards form part of the Active, Fit and Sporty Project aimed to work strategically with a wide range of partners and key stakeholders to raise the profile of women and girls in sport and physical activity in four key areas.
The four key areas are: media (increasing the visibility of female success), leadership (driving cultural change to involve more females in leadership roles), role models (inspiring role models can have a significant impact on participation) and research and evaluation (providing an evidence base to support extending the reach of sport and physical activity).
The Active, Fit and Sporty project has developed femalefocused campaigns and programmes in these four areas to drive an increase in participation rates of women and girls across Northern Ireland. Discover more by visiting the website: https://femalesportsforum.com/