10/04/08 - A COMPLETE LOAD OF BALLS!

Let’s face it, there aren’t enough of us out there that we could become blasé about the numbers that follow the Glens week in week out, and to that end the Glentoran Community Trust have for a while now been eager to promote health awareness amongst our supporters, and primarily amongst men.

It is widely acknowledged that women  are well switched on about their general health and well being, but as for the men folk, well that’s a different matter.

We can’t afford to lose any more supporters, never mind to ill health, and with this in mind the Glentoran Community Trust have thrown their support behind a new project being run by the Wise Men of the East.

The Wise Men of the East is a network which  operates in the Post Codes of East Belfast of BT4, BT 5, BT6 and BT16.

The Network Aims to:

• VALUE dialogue between men aged 50+  

• VALUE their participation
• VALUE community development
• VALUE equality issues
• VALUE local men's groups
• The Network's Objectives are to:
• PROMOTE a positive view of men as confident and active citizens
• PROMOTE the capacity of men's skills and abilities
• PROMOTE the resourcing of personal development
• PROMOTE community benefits

• THE APPROACH is to identify interesting ways to attract men to activities and ways to get health information across, including linking history and health education.
• PROVIDING men in the area of interest with socialising opportunities to get them out of the home and active.
• PROVIDING another outlet for cross-community contact.

The membership of the Glentoran Community Trust have come together with the WMEN, The Belfast Trust, and the East Belfast Community Development Agency to launch a new brochure which aims to promote more awareness in relation to men’s health.

The brochure entitled “Is mens health a load of balls?” will be launched and distributed before next Tuesday night’s Setanta Cup game with Derry City at the Oval. All we ask is that you take a moment to pick up a leaflet and have a read through it, after that, the choice is yours!

We would like to thank Glentoran Football Club for their assistance and support in promoting this very worthwhile venture, and also to Russell Pritchard and Michael Dougherty for their involvement.

We hope to enhance this project with the help of all the stakeholders in the months to come.

The board of the Glentoran Community Trust.