Venture Outdoors Conference proves to be a great success!!
Mark Pollock, the first blind man to reach the South Pole shared his experiences at CAAN's conference entitled Venture Outdoors – Creating Healthy Communities. The event took place on Thursday 3rd December 2009 at Armagh City Hotel. Mark is renowned worldwide as a motivational speaker and provided a fascinating insight into his experiences after losing his sight and then racing in the World’s most extreme environments – deserts, oceans, mountains and Polar Regions – to inspire others to redefine what’s possible.
The CAAN conference was chaired by Olive Brown, a director of Countryside Recreation Northern Ireland. The Conference was designed to raise awareness of good practice programmes happening locally and in the UK that strive towards engaging disabled, minority ethnic and disadvantaged individuals and groups in outdoor recreation.
Mark commented, “Relying on a decade of personal experience and study of surviving and competing on the edge has been my way of knowing that I can achieve my goals. In terms of today, the conference has been about motivating and inspiring others to make it happen.”
The conference was also the formal launch of Venture Outdoors - Creating Healthy Communities project being delivered by CAAN. Olive Brown, commented “The event included an exciting line-up of speakers who provided inspiration to all involved in developing strategies to make the outdoors accessible for all. CAAN has great hopes for the ‘Venture Outdoors – Creating Healthy Communities’ project, and the role it will play in engaging with disabled, minority ethnic and disadvantaged communities in outdoor recreation.”
The project involves three key areas; training for activity providers, landowners and community advocates, marketing including adaptation of websites, publications and devising marketing campaigns and finally participation in terms of the target groups involvement in taster sessions and building outdoor recreation networks which will sustain their new found passion.
Sharon Donnelly, Venture Outdoors Development Officer commented that; “This is a fantastic opportunity for under represented groups to enjoy getting outdoors and help in terms of raising awareness of all outdoor activities that are available just on their doorstep.”
This 3 year project is an initiative of CAAN and has been provided with a grant of £470,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities Programme and Ulster Gardens Villages.
