Lough Ree Angling Hub among groups to benefit from bank's community funding

A Lough Ree Angling Hub which aims to teach unemployed men to fish on the lake has been named among 68 community projects to receive financial support from Bank of Ireland's €500,000 Begin Together fund this year.

In a press statement this week, the bank said this year's fund had a focus "on projects that improve financial, mental or physical wellbeing," and that it was being delivered in partnership with the Community Foundation for Ireland.

The initiatives awarded funding will receive grants of varying amounts, up to a maximum of €20,000, for projects spanning financial literacy and wellbeing, mental health, disability, inclusion and diversity.

Projects in the Midlands which are being supported by the Begin Together fund this year include:

* Lough Ree Angling Hub: 'Fishing for New Life After Covid'

The Lough Ree Angling hub is a not-for-profit, community, voluntary group set up to help people through the medium of angling. It has helped people with disability in the past, and said it's now focusing on "a Bord na Móna community that was devastated by job losses."

The Hub is working in collaboration with the Longford-Westmeath Education & Training Board and the Galway Roscommon Education & Training board to show unemployed men how to use the skills of angling to escape the anxiety and depression that sometimes comes with redundancy and help them train up, in turn, to become leaders for others on the dole.

Its Begin Together funding will be used to ensure that up to 60 unemployed men get the opportunity to learn to fish, and get professional support for their mental health.

* Lough Ree Access For All CLG: Brain Injury Therapy Trips 2022

Lough Ree Access for All CLG is a not-for-profit service provider for people with physical and intellectual disabilities from all over the country. It provides recreational and therapeutic boat trips on the River Shannon and Lough Ree, at a heavily subsidised rate, to thousands of wheelchair users and people with special needs.

It is now focused on increasing the capacity of the service with a second boat and a new focus on carrying people with acquired brain injury.

* New Horizon - Athlone Refugee & Asylum Seeker Support Group

New Horizon provides children living in direct provision in the Midlands with access to recreational, social, sporting, and educational activities to support their social, physical, and mental wellbeing.

It recognises the challenges endured by children while their parents navigate the asylum system, and works to ensure that they can have a childhood, despite their circumstances. The activities that New Horizon supports include ‘teen adventures’, circus arts, the children’s forest experience, and much more.

* Family Carers Ireland: Caring Connections - Five Ways to Wellbeing

Family Carers Ireland, which has its national office in Tullamore, supports family carers caring for children or adults with physical or intellectual disabilities, frail older people, as well as those with palliative care needs or living with chronic illnesses, mental ill-health, or addiction.

Its ‘Caring Connections – Five Ways to Wellbeing’ initiative will support family carers to reconnect, rejuvenate and re-engage post-pandemic. Facilitated by local carer support managers, family carers will engage in a variety of local activities and events designed to improve their mental wellbeing.

* Clonaslee Wheelchair Basketball Club

Clonaslee Wheelchair Basketball Club caters for people with physical disabilities to play wheelchair basketball in the Midlands area. The club competes in the Irish Wheelchair Basketball league and cup competitions annually, and requires new basketball wheelchairs for members.

The project will enable newer players to participate in the sport without having the added financial pressure of buying a specialised basketball chair. The chairs are required to play the sport but also aid in our members’ rehabilitation from serious injuries that they may have sustained.

More information about all of the projects supported by Begin Together is available here.