Inverness Royal Academy Community Sport Hub receives national praise from SportScotland
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A sport project in Inverness has been praised by sportscotland for playing its part in creating new and improved opportunities for people to participate and get active.
The Inverness Royal Academy Community Sport Hub is part of the national community sport hub programme bringing together clubs and organisations to develop sport at local level.
Inverness Royal Academy CSH was formed in 2016 when a new school building was being built which included a shared leisure facility, operated by High Life Highland.
Since then the hub has gone from strength to strength and there are now 13 organisations involved, giving opportunities for hundreds of people, of all ages, to take part in sport every week.
Football, gymnastics, basketball, tennis, netball, badminton, disability sport and indoor bowling are all catered for. The hub has also set up a bespoke cycling programme to address a lack of cycling opportunities in the area.
The results have been impressive with school pupils and families alike regularly taking part at the hub.
There are now 14 mountain bikes based at the school and a new fully-equipped workshop.
High Life Highland community sport hub officer Donald Hall, who has worked on the hub project since day one, said identifying the needs of the local community had been key to the success of the hub at Inverness Royal Academy over the last four years.
He said: “When we first set up the project, we did a lot of community consultation, understood what the local needs were and then delivered quickly. Whether that was setting up coaching courses, volunteer training and linking up clubs with youth workers and active schools, so the basic ethos of what a hub should be. Engaging with local partners early was important.”
