FreeKick Scores a Winner

COLERAINE FC and The Hummingbird Project have scored a winner with The National Lottery Community Fund “Awards for All” programme…

The funder has recently made an award to our unique Hues of Blues community partnership, to deliver another four rounds of the highly successful FreeKick programme. This is great news for the partnership and visible evidence of the value that National Lottery players, and the Community Fund, bring back into their local communities.

A pilot FreeKick in Autumn 2022 was a huge hit with participants and produced some amazing mental fitness impacts over a 5-week period.  Among the outcomes measured, participants in the pilot programme recorded:

• A 30% improvement in their ability to cope with unpleasant feelings
• A 25% reduction in levels of anxiety
• A 25% improvement in their ability to maintain close relationships.

Insightful, focused, eye-opening, important, educational, friendly, rewarding and fun were some of the words used by participants to describe their experience of the programme.

The next FreeKick runs from Monday 6^th March for 5 consecutive Monday evenings (7-8:30pm) at The Showgrounds, with spaces for up to 12 people.

This programme is for everyone – whether you are feeling OK and just want tips to stay well, or you are struggling a little and would like to sharpen up on your mental fitness.

Welcoming the award, Colin McKendry (Chairman of Coleraine FC) said:

“We’re delighted to announce that the Club has been awarded funding from The National Lottery to support the next phase of our Hues of Blues community partnership with The Hummingbird Project. The award means a lot to more people from our fanbase and it’s fantastic that we can help as a football club to support the initiative. We would welcome anyone from the local community to come along and support FreeKick.”

CEO of The Hummingbird Project, Leigh Carey, added:

“I know just how much both the participants and staff got out of the first run of FreeKick so we are really happy to receive this funding.  I love the fact that through the partnership with Coleraine FC we are reaching into new areas of the community to improve emotional health”

One of the participants on the pilot FreeKick programme was a name synonymous with everything Coleraine FC-related. Ardent Bannsider, Jonathan McNabb Senior, said:

“FreeKick was a real eye-opener for me. It brought a fresh new outlook on how to stay mentally strong and to be better equipped for what life throws at me. It’s fun, it’s free and it’s a fantastic way to feed good mental fitness. I would recommend it to anyone!”

Our advice is to get in early to register your place as one of the team of twelve on the next programme. You can do this using the link below or by telephoning Jimmy McAleese on 07712269604.

https://thehummingbirdproject.org.uk/freekick/

We look forward to welcoming the next team on board!