The South East Sports Development Committee have begun the 2007-08 period in emphatic style through a re-branding of themselves by changing their name to Sport South East, a redesign of their logo and launching this brand new website. The proposal to make the changes was passed by the organisation’s members to reflect the new era of the partnership as well as the recent re-branding of Sport Northern Ireland, formerly the Sports Council of NI, and the upcoming launch of the new Strategy of Sport and Physical Activity for N.Ireland 2007-2017. This past year of April 2006 - March 2007 has proved a very eventful period in the history of Sport South East. It began the year by securing funding from Sport Northern Ireland’s “Sport in Our Community” Programme which ensured the employment of a Regional Partnership Officer until 2010 allowing the Partnership to continue to deliver a diverse regional sports development programme. An element of this programme was the establishment of 10 Multi Skills Clubs within the South Eastern Education and Library Board area over 2 years to focus on developing the fundamental movement skills of children aged 5-12 years old. Having secured funding from the Big Lottery’s Active Skills Programme, Oct’ 06 saw the launch of 4 SE Seals Multi Skills Clubs with a further 6 to be launched in Sept’07. The establishment of these clubs also involved throughout the summer the training of coaches in multi skill delivery as well as providing them with a Continuous Professional Development programme. As well as the SE Multi Skills Clubs, Sport South East delivered a varied Coach Education Programme between October ’06 and Mar’07. This programme included a range of sports specific and non-sports specific courses which included Fitness and Training, Motivation and Mental Toughness and Including People with Disabilities in Your Club. This year also saw Robert Crowe, who had been the Sport South East Partnership Officer since December 2003, leave the post and take up a position with Coaching NI. The New Year of 2007 began with Faron Morrison appointed as his predecessor, whose first task was to organise the South East Youth Games. The programme involved local trials for over 500 boys and girls aged 8-13 in 6 sports (Badminton, Basketball, Cricket, Netball, Swimming and Table Tennis) within the five council areas of Ards, Castlereagh, Down, Lisburn and North Down. Council squads in each of the sports were selected culminating in a competitive finals days on Feb 19th 2007 across 3 venues in Lisburn. The South East Regional Cross Country Challenge again proved a tremendous success. Over 800 P6 and P7 children from schools within the SEELB participated in local heats during March within the 5 Council areas and the top 3 teams in the boys and girls races as well as the top 3 individuals progressed to the regional final on March 29th , which this year was held at the Billy Neill Centre in Dundonald. The top 3 teams and individuals in the boys and girls races would normally progress to the cross country event at the NI Youth Games; unfortunately these games will no longer take place. Sport South East has been in contact with the NI Athletic Federation and are confident that an alternative event can be organised involving all the area partnerships for 2008. Overall, it has been an eventful and successful year for Sport South East which is set to continue with the SE Seals Multi Skills Clubs and the 2007/8 Coach Education and Training Programme. The coming months should also prove to be a very exciting period as there are plans to develop the South East Youth Games into a Talent ID Scheme involving the multi skills concept and working alongside Robin Gregg, Talent Identification Consultant with Sport Northern Ireland. Sport South East are also delighted to announce that O’Neill’s Sportswear Ltd have agreed to sponsor the partnership by issuing its members with items of their branded sportswear. This deal with O’Neill’s highlights this new era for the Partnership and has the potential to prove a beneficial relationship for both parties for a number of years. An official Sport South East re-branding event will be held on September 5th to coincide with the launch of the partnership’s 2007-08 Coach Education Plan and will include further developments regarding the Talent ID Scheme. | 
Review of 2006-2007
