A new document published by the ARFOR leadership team brings together many of the key stories of the project, showcasing examples of the positive effect that the different work streams have had on individuals, institutions and businesses across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Gwynedd and Anglesey. Due to the breadth and ambitions of the project, there are wide variety of individual stories that receive attention, from research projects by Aberystwyth and Bangor universities, to training and upskilling programmes, to various support for individual businesses across the region.
Among the projects that have received attention is the Sport and Leisure Enterprise Project which was led by Mentrau Iaith Cymru as part of the Cronfa Her (Challenge Fund) stream.
The aim of the project was to encourage entrepreneurship among Welsh speakers in the fields of leisure and sport by providing an opportunity for young people to qualify as coaches in their chosen leisure areas while also encouraging and enabling sports and leisure clubs to hold sessions through the medium of Welsh.
The project enjoyed a presence across all of ARFOR’s counties and collaboration was achieved with the sports departments of the councils together with local clubs in order to motivate individuals to participate and to facilitate training in various recreational sports.
As part of the project, two individuals were employed to lead the work. Links were created with young people through the secondary schools, local colleges and through sports clubs in order to attract interest in securing training to qualify as accredited coaches. There was collaboration between the officials and Sport Wales and the individual sports management bodies, together with bodies that provide sports training. Without this intervention it would not have been possible to hold these sessions through the medium of Welsh, as there was not sufficient demand for Welsh language sessions before the establishment of the programme.
This project shows how Cronfa Her enabled different organizations to work together in order to encourage entrepreneurship among the young people of ARFOR and allow them to follow training in their own language. This ensured not only the ability to look for possible job opportunities in the future but also helped to gain confidence and start to change the culture in some clubs where although Welsh may be the main language of the sessions, technical training through the medium of Welsh was seen as less important than learning other ‘practical’ skills.
This is one example among many of the interesting and important work undertaken as part of the ARFOR programme. To learn more about similar projects, you can read the document in full by following the link below.
