Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones AM, will this month visit several projects, funded by the Sports Council for Wales, that are helping youngsters and adults keep active.

Aberdulais Golf Range, Neath

On Wednesday 11 November the Minister will meet young golfers from Cilfrew Primary School who have been given free golf lessons at Aberdulais Golf Range.

The range was awarded £1,000 of National Lottery funding, via the Community Chest grant, to help juniors swing into action on the golf course. The grant helped to purchase junior golf clubs and to offer pupils from the local comprehensive school a 20 week block of free lessons.

The project has been extended to include primary schools and an invitation has been extended to every school in Neath Port Talbot to visit the range and take free lessons. A golf teacher from the range will also go into schools and deliver sessions and a school festival is planned for the future.

Tonyrefail Comprehensive School, Rhondda Cynon Taff

On Thursday 12 November the Minister will visit pupils at Tonyrefail Comprehensive School who are reaping the rewards of the Sports Council’s 5x60 programme, which is designed to get more secondary school pupils taking part in 60 minutes of physical activity five times a week.

Approximately £40,000 has been invested into the school to date since they came on board with the programme in September 2007. In the last academic year alone 232 5x60 sessions have been run, 60 of those assisted or delivered by Young Leaders - older pupils that have been trained to help out with the running of the programme and activities. That means approximately 25% of sessions are run by the older school pupils.

Across Wales the Sports Council has injected £7.5 million of Welsh Assembly Government funding into 5x60 since September 2006. As of September 2009, 18 out of the 19 comprehensives schools within RCT are on board with 5x60, along with two out of the four special schools. And across RCT as a whole there have been 6597 participants in 5x60 with 4175 attending more than five times.

Fighting Fit Gym in Griffithstown, Torfaen

On Wednesday 18 November the Minister will be given a short tour of Fighting Fit Gym by owner, Jo Draper. This will be followed by a taekwondo, Nunchaku and a break dancing demonstration by local children.

In 2006 the former bakery was given a full £55,000 makeover – part funded by a £20,000 lottery grant from the Sports Council for Wales - to transform itself into a fitness and martial arts academy open to the entire community. And three years on from throwing open its doors, Fighting Fit is booming. Taekwando sessions take place from Monday to Thursday where all ages are catered for and the fitness suite is a hub of activity from daybreak to nightfall.

Steering the project from the offset, Jo Draper has invested her own time and money into Fighting Fit.

She says; "It really has been a labour of love. Fitness has always been hugely important to me and I want more people to realise the benefits.

"As word spreads, we’ve seen more and more kids sign up to the classes. They come three times and week and get a fun workout with their friends. And because it’s a doorstep facility, parents have less of an issue with transport and time."

Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones AM, said:

"There are a lot of good projects being funded by the Sports Council for Wales and a lot of good work being done by people across Wales to provide opportunities for people to be physically active. I hope that these visits will help to publicise the efforts that schools and individuals are making to get more of us more active. We fully recognise the importance of providing opportunities for people living in our local communities to be become physically active."

Sports Council for Wales Chair, Philip Carling, said:

"These excellent projects are extremely successful examples of how sport and physical recreation can bring communities together and play a vital role in boosting the health and wellbeing of young people and adults alike in Wales. With the ongoing support of the Welsh Assembly Government, the National Lottery and Local Authorities, we will continue to encourage schemes such as these across the country in our bid to help more people to become more active."