Published: Friday, 13th November, 2009 10:00am

Tullamore Olympian wins Social Entrepreneurs Ireland award

Tullamore Olympian James Nolan has won a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland award for work with children in Offaly.

He received a Level 1 Award at the 2009 Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Awards ceremony, held in Dublin recently, for his work in a range of primary schools in Offaly helping children develop their core motor and fitness skills. Thirty-one social entrepreneurs from throughout the country received Awards ranging from €80,000 each for Level 2 Awardees to €6,000 each for Level 1 Awards winners.

Having spent 14 years competing at international and Olympic level for Ireland in athletics, two-times Olympian James Nolan switched his focus to helping young people develop their core motor and fitness skills.

James is determined to address the decline in participation levels of Irish children in physical activity and the resulting growing obesity epidemic. Through his international athletics career and later studies, James has witnessed the successes of physical activity programmes for children in many other countries which has given him the vision to bring these best practice techniques back to Ireland.

FAST Kids (Fun, Agility, Skills, Technique) is a child-centred programme that is fun, team-based, and designed to offer immediate appeal to children and parents. It is already sought after by volunteers, teachers and coaches due to the high level of engagement by the children taking part. James is already bringing the programme to a range of primary schools in Co Offaly and hopes to broaden its reach in the coming year. James' overall goal is to increase children's involvement in and love for sport and to improve their future health status and quality of life.

FAST Kids achieves this through the provision of direct and appropriate child-centred training and upskilling for teachers, coaches and volunteers.