About | Laois Sports Partnership

About Laois Sports Partnership

Laois Sports Partnership is a leader in local sports development in Ireland and is one of the founding partnerships. Laois County Council identified the need for a Local Sports Partnership for Laois in 2001 and an inter-agency partnership was established to develop a submission to Sport Ireland, then the Irish Sports Council. The board of Laois Sports Partnership was established in May 2002 and has since met on a bimonthly basis to address the operational and strategic oversight of sport, recreation and physical activity in the county. The Partnership is supported in its work by a Board of Management with a broad spectrum of representative groups on the board.

The outcomes sought from the Local Sports Partnerships by Sport Ireland include:

Enhanced planning of sport at local level
Increased levels of local participation, especially amongst specific target groupse.g., older people, girls and women, people with disabilities, unemployed people and those who live in identified disadvantaged communities.
Club development & volunteer training
Local Directories of sports bodies and facilities

Clear priorities for facility provision and improvement, with related quality management initiatives
School / club / community and school / National Governing Body links
Local sports events

Role of Laois Sports Partnership

The three main functions of LSP’s are summarised by Sport Ireland as follows:

Information: Resource audits and a needs analysis which can be used as a basis for planning at local level.
Education: To provide training opportunities, courses and to facilitate participation.
Implementation: Strategic plans used to implement local programmes based on local requirements, to maximise the impact and benefit of national programmes at the local level and to market and promote sport and physical activity.