Good afternoon,

Female participation and engagement in sport is currently a recurrent topic, with many clubs finding it difficult to retain females of all ages and in all positions within their clubs. Especially teenage girls whom by the age of 14, drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys.

Our next Sports Forum meeting from 7-8.30pm on Tuesday 25th October in The Lexicon Library & Cultural Centre, Dun Laoghaire will bring together a panel of experienced and inspiring sports women from a variety of different sporting backgrounds to discuss their experiences on the topic. They will each speak of how they got involved in sport and why, what made them remain /return, what challenges / barriers they faced along their journey, what affect sport has had on their life and what advice they have to offer to other women and girls from their experiences. This informal chat will be followed by a Q&A session.

We are excited to have Nora Stapleton –Women in Sport Lead with Sport Ireland leading the discussion and to announce the following inspiring ladies on our panel.

Emily McKEown- Leinster Rugby

Bernie Durkan – Sports Psychologist & Ladies Gaelic

Shauna Fitzsimons – UCD Boat Club & winner of Student Sport Ireland Leadership Award

Suzanne Logan – Women in Sport Lead with Golf Ireland

Also, we welcome Niamh Tallon- HerSport.ie who will present on empowering women and girls at all levels in sport and understanding what is needed to keep them involved. She wants girls and women to see a future in sport, to feel like they belong and to seize opportunities to get involved, no matter what their role.

Shane Mc Ardle- Coordinator DLR Sports Partnership commented ‘There’s an ongoing struggle to hold onto females within clubs which is proving a great loss to our clubs. What better way to tackle the issue than by bringing this panel of experienced female speakers together under one roof to hash out the issues and benefit from their down to earth, what worked for them approach.’

This is an exclusive event, available only to DLR Clubs and we encourage all club members to attend. We would especially like to extend the invitation to female coaches, volunteers, administration staff, parents of players and female players within the club. Places are limited so please register for this free event early to avoid disappointment through the following link: DLR Sports Partnership

We would be very grateful if you could forward this email onto anyone in your club/ community that may benefit from attending.

Kind regards,

The DLR Sports Partnership Team

‘Fostering Active Communities’

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Sports Partnership.
County Hall, Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland.