Emphasising the importance of Parish Sports Councils

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, January 9, 2011 – Sports Minister Patrick Simmons has underscored the importance of the proposed Parish Sports Councils, noting the critical role they will play in the development of sports in Grenada.

A draft National Sports Policy, which is expected to be enacted into law sometime this year, calls for the establishment of a National Sports Council (NSC), as well as a Parish Sports Council (PSC) in each of the nation’s parishes, including Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

One of the plans outlined in the Sports Policy is for the NSC to produce an annual sporting calendar. In order to achieve this goal, there will be collaboration between the NSC and PSC, Minister Simmons said.

“The PSC would have to go down on the ground and do the work; get information from all the leagues within the various parishes and formulate the calendar on a parish basis,’’ he said. “The parish calendar will then be forwarded to the National Sports Council which will come up with the holistic calendar of events for that year.”

Another of the mandates of the PSC will be to organise parish football, cricket and netball tournaments.

Members will also be expected to assist the Ministry of Sports in its Holiday Recreational programmes, and to set up sports council offices in each parish.

Discussions on the effective implementation of the policy have begun, with the first meeting of 2011 taking place recently between officials of the Ministry of Sports and representatives of the PSC.

Among those attending were Minister Simmons; Permanent Secretary Veda Bruno-Victor; Policy Advisor Kenrick Fullerton and Coordinator of Sports, Conrad Francis.

Story and photos submitted by Jaime Campbell of the Ministry of Youth Empowerment & Sports