Activity

One of our main healthy Club’s initiatives at Hospital Herbertstown GAA was to adopt Smoke Free Policy within our grounds to Nurture and protect the health of our players, club members and the wider community. We recognised that supporting communities to QUIT smoking was a core objective of HSE Health & Wellbeing and was also voiced as a goal of ours during our mapping phase. We were also aware that one of the primary aims of the Tobacco free Ireland government strategy is to create tobacco free local environments with a view to encouraging more people to think about quitting. This initiative, therefore, was a great example of how our GAA club can work together with the local Community, but also national stakeholders, to protect and nurture the health and well being of all.
Our Smoke Free Policy was launched virtually on (date) from Hospital GAA Grounds on National no smoking day. The policy prohibits smoking across the entire grounds, but also facilitates collaboration across the community (with schools, community Council, tidy towns etc.) to increase the impact of the initiative….

This initiative was developed in collaboration with Co. Limerick GAA, HSE Health &Wellbeing and (insert 3rd sponsor), and we were delighted to have a great level of contribution from the younger club members from both Hospital and Herbertstown, many of whom designed posters and captioned these with statements encouraging and supporting the development and adoption of a smoke free club and grounds where children and their families could gather and help to make “smoke free” the norm. The winning captioned poster (chosen by our judge John Kiely) stated “No smoking… Let’s Get Fit and Try to Quit”. This was blown up onto a placard and is displayed along with our smoke free signage in various points around the GAA Club grounds.

John Kiely (Limerick Hurling Manager) and Dr. James Ryan (Limerick Team Doctor) , emphasised the benefits of giving up smoking and seeking support to quit. They both highlighted how we need role models for our young people, and praised healthy club efforts in our GAA Club’s in leading the way.

We also circulated information online on our club Facebook, Instagram and twitter accounts encourageing any smokers aspiring to quit to access one or more of the supports outlined, rather than attempting to quit on their own. Supporting communities to QUIT smoking is a core objective of HSE Health & Wellbeing.

We hope that our smoke free initiative will help ensure the children, teenagers and young adults of Hospital and Herbertstown see and experience positive healthier environments, and interpret these as the norm. We are so proud of this. Initiative and the fact that it enabled us to see our local community organisations working together to make this aspiration a reality.