Charity kickstarting sport in the community

With the recent easing of restrictions and the last few steps of the Government’s roadmap to come, Okehampton Community and Recreation Association (OCRA) has been working to facilitate the re-start of grassroots sports. Okehampton has been leading the way across Devon with the reopening of sports facilities as restrictions allow, due to OCRA’s well established relationship with Okehampton College. Many clubs, schools and colleges across Devon have not been able to open up their facilities to the community since March due to the extra work and restrictions COVID regulations has had.

This quick restart has enabled hockey, tennis, football, external exercise classes, walking football and walking netball to reignite the community’s passion for sport and activity. This means local clubs and groups can enjoy both social and organised activity again. This provides a much needed release of pent up energy as well as the well documented benefits of activity on physical and mental health for participants.

With indoor activities for children restarting in April, gymnastics, trampolining and badminton sessions have also got the community moving. Adults can return to indoor activity from May 17th, fingers crossed, to give further opportunity for being active, whether that be in exercise classes, indoor bowls, bridge or table tennis.

OCRA are still supporting their groups suffering from long term health conditions and those that have additional needs by continuing virtual sessions until restrictions are eased further. OCRA will continue its holiday activity programme in Okehampton in May, with a broadening of the sessions available to provide further opportunities to be active for the community.

To provide more opportunities for the wider community, OCRA are working in partnership with the Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust and Active Devon. The Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust partnership provides activities for those who access the free school meals initiative through the Local Authority’s Holiday Activities and Food Programme. OCRA are also assisting with the wider Sport England project facilitated by Active Devon to help schools deliver extra-curricular activities and open their facilities outside of the school day during evenings, weekends and school holidays, enabling communities to access high quality facilities on their doorstep.