Galway islands project wins National Age Friendly Award

A community-based initiative hosted on County Galway’s offshore communities has been named winner at the National Age Friendly Awards held in Clayton Whites Hotel in Wexford.

The project, named “Healthy Islands”, picked up the Age Friendly Active & Healthy Ageing Award in recognition of its efforts to promote health and well-being for more than 200 participating residents of The Aran Islands and Inisbofin and featured free activities and resources to promote health and wellbeing across all the islands.

This included pulse and blood pressure checks, healthy cooking demonstration workshops, a community fun run, yoga, relationship and sexual health education, citizen information advice, and exercise and fitness tips.

The initiative, rolled out last April, was coordinated by Healthy Galway County under Galway Rural Development’s Social Inclusion Community Activation Programme (SICAP) and supported by statutory, community and voluntary organisations, including Galway Rural Development, Galway Sports Partnership, Comharchumann Forbartha Arann Teo Inis Mór, Comhlacht Forbartha Inis Meáin, Inishbofin Development Company CL and Comhar Caomhán Teoranta Inis Oírr.