Offaly Sports Partnership Older Adult Physical Activity Programme

Description

Our Older Adult physical activity programme is designed to engage older adults into fun competitive activities that offers a variety of choice. It is broken down into a number of programmes. The main objective is to create environments where eventually the activity will run itself with little input form OSP. We run a 6 week block offering different sports every week. As the timetable is published in advance participants can then choose what they would like to attend. This programme consists of an initial taster session highlighting all the activities which we offer. In the most recent taster programme we had over 60 participants. We look to target new participants into this taster session, with the hope that they will take an interest in some of the activities. Over the next 5 weeks we offer competitive tournaments which ran from 10.00am – 1.00pm , where there is always an over all winner presented with medals in each sport. The sports this year included Chair volleyball (24 participants), Pickleball (31 participants), Darts (20 participants), Boccia (41 participants), Badminaton (10 participants). Another one of these programmes will take place in the Autumn.
The follow up to these programmes is to look to get groups playing a particular sport on a more consistent basis. Currently there is 2 groups playing Pickleball in the county of Offaly, and the hope is by the end of the year there will be 2 more. Ballycumber has close to 20 members with at least 10 playing weekly. Daingean has over 10 players. The hope is to have regular competitive tournaments after the summer break and provide an opportunity to play other groups, maybe counties. This programme facilitates a combination of adults and older players. Future planning would look to the establishment of a league, where players take the ownes on themselves to play, and the results of each match will be submitted into OSP.
Another very successful programme which Offaly Sports Partnership runs is our Boccia league. Currently we have 3 different leagues (Womens league, Mens league, and Mixed league). The League runs from October – end of February with big finals night held in March, where most recently there was over 60 people present between spectators and players. It was very fitting that a woman who is 92 years old played a dominent role in her team winning the womens final. This lady was also on the winning team in the one day Boccia tournament. 72 players played in the league this year.
There are a number of walking football groups who meet weekly to train throughout the county. The average age for some of these groups is 60 or 70 years. Again the hope is that more groups will be established over the coming months/ years that will eventually feed into a walking football league.
We also cater for participants who would prefer a more gentle approach to physical activity, through our gentle fitness classes. Currently there are 2 groups running. Ballycumber was established January 2024, has 12 participants who attend weekly, with the numbers on the rise. Daingean is coming up to its 2 year anniversary with close to 20 participants who meet 2 mornings a week. Activators is also run through one of our sports hubs with over 50 participants who also meet twice a week.

Aim of Initiative

To create a fun social environment, where the focus is on participation but also to ensure that there is an opportunity for social interaction through the provision of a cup of tea at every activity. By creating the competition and competitive environments I feel we are re-engaging the participants into their sporting past. I feel that this is important by way of sustainability of programmes and ensuring engagement in the longer term which will keep participants physically active as they age in a fun and enjoyable manner. I also like to cater for the less active through the provision of the gentle fitness sessions which has a huge impact on the participants functional fitness, to enable continued independence. The activities such as the chair volleyball and the Boccia provides the fun social environments which is also inclusive of the less able older adult regardless of their ability and age.

Who is it aimed at

The initiative is aimed at any adult from 55 years plus, regardless of their ability and age. By offering such a variety of activities it is inclusive of all within the older adult category. As was identified one or two of the activities such as the pickleball is also open to Adult participants due to the non invasive manner of the game, but also the more numbers playing the greater the chance of sustainability of such a programme. I feel its also important to engage the Adult cohort into some activities to create opportunities for interaction with the older adult groups and also to break down the barriers and social perception of the older adult when it comes to physical activity.

3 Steps critical to success

1. The initial promotion of all programmes is vital in its success. This can only be done through getting involved with communities at a local level, building rapport with the individuals/ groups. Being open to participate and engage with other organisations to work collaboratively on a programme/ project, which will also help engage participants.
2. Creating fun, enjoyable environments encourages participants to attend regularly. It also open their minds to trying new activities, and to challenge themselves to try things out when offered. Ensuring there’s a variety of activities offered will also engage more participants. We also see huge value in creating competitive environments which works in actively in recruiting and retaining participants.
3. Sustainability of programmes. Finding ways to make programmes work themselves as the support from Offaly Sports Partnership is gradually withdrawn is essential when introducing programmes and activities. Training up leaders in group such as active retirements and women’s/ men’s sheds. Providing such leaders with ideas and tools to introduce simple activities into the group setting that will help participants become more active is also something which creates sustainability. Being creative in approaches to programmes and always looking for new programmes and ideas to help engage the older adult and not being afraid to try new ideas all help in the development of such a programme as our older adult physical activity programme.

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. One of the greatest challenges is promotion of our programme. It takes a lot of time to interact with the community on a personal level, to gain their trust and convince them to try the programme. Also trying to make contact with new participants onto programmes who haven’t engaged with Offaly Sports Partnership previously. We need to use a variety of promotional avenues as every community is different.
2. Because of the duration of the programme and the volume of activities offered funding can be an issue. We try to combine funding from different streams together as our individual budgets would not be able to cover the cost for the whole programme.
3. The provision of equipment to ensure the sustainability of the activities. There is a lot of equipment needed and when we get to the stage where we are trying to withdraw / decrease support we need to ensure the groups will still have access to equipment. This is very evident with the groups playing Boccia and pickleball in particular. The more groups we get playing it the more equipment is needed. This can be big costs to ask community groups to come up with. This is particularly through if I get the pickleball league up and running where I would need to leave a set ( one net, 4 bats, 4 balls) in a few community centers around the county to allow the participants to play their matches. Boccia balls are also a big expense for the group to buy to facilitate training and matches to participate in the league. Without the leagues there is less chance of sustainability of the activity.

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. To ensure greater levels on engagement on all aspects of our older adult physical activity programme which will increase the physical activity levels of the older adult cohort in county Offaly. Sport and physical activity should and can be used as a mechanism to address many of the challenges that an older adult can face within society such as isolation, loneliness, mental health, the physical challenges of independent living. The social engagement aspect is one of the main pillars of our older adult physical activity programme.
2. To create sustained activities that will be able to stay going once the support from OSP begins to reduce. This can be achieved through the creation of leagues in a variety of sports and activities. This outcome can only be achieved if people are introduced to the activity in the first place, and from there over a period of time the final outcome can be achieved.
3. To create a fun environment where participants can engage in the physical activity but also to ensure there is provision made in every session for social interaction through the provision of a cup of tea. This we feel is just as important to the older adult as the activity itself.