Women in Sport Leadership Course comes to a successful end

Throughout April and May, our members received training in relation to various topics including leadership, values, networking and collaboration, influence and change and many more.

The IWA-Sport Women in Sport Leadership course is funded by Sport Ireland and is an action falling out of the 2022-2025 Women in Sport Strategy launched last year. The course was designed to support our female members thrive in leadership positions, while also learning new skills and increasing their confidence.

Throughout, to encourage a more relaxed learning atmosphere, members were given a hands-on experience with various breakout groups included as part of the course.

Partnering with Basketball Ireland, the course took place online and was led by consultants Lisa Clancy and Sarah O’Shea. Both of whom hold positions as Vice President of Paralympic Ireland and Honorary General Secretary Olympic Federation Ireland, proving to be invaluable educators over the 5 weeks.

One of the members who took part, Maeve Murphy shared her gratitude and implored how courses like this are important:

“Thank you to Lisa and Sarah for creating this highly relevant course. I learned so much to support my volunteering goals.”

Six-time Irish wheelchair racing Paralympian, Patrice Dockery explains the invaluable experience gained from the Women in Sport Leadership course:

“For me participating and completing the Women in Sport Leadership Programme was a very empowering experience. I learnt to be a good leader you must be true to your core values. I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet and get to know our two fantastic mentors who delivered this exceptional course and all the fabulous participants.”

Speaking on the support each member had for each other over the five weeks, Dockery continued:

“We listened to each other, shared our experiences and encouraged each other throughout the course and as a result we have built up a fantastic network of support for each other. I hope through the knowledge and skills that I learnt during the programme that I will be an effective member of the IWA-Sport Women in Sport Committee and also be successful in encouraging females with disabilities to participate in sport.”

The course came to a close on Saturday when each member received their certification in person at the Sport Ireland Campus. IWA-Sport would like to congratulate Patrice Doherty, Maeve Murphy, Leah McCabe, Rachel Sinnott, Sinead Kane, Aoife McNichol and Shannon Molloy Farrell.