Barrow Raiders are celebrating huge recognition for their Community Foundation, as viewers of ITV Granada have voted them the winners of a People’s Project award.
That will mean a crucial financial injection from The National Lottery for the range of programmes run by the Foundation from Craven Park, including the Able Raiders by Advantage! fitness sessions, and the club’s Learning Disability Rugby League team – who will be in action on Saturday at St James’ Park in Newcastle, as part of Super League’s Magic Weekend.
“It means everything to us,” said Lisa Neale, the Operations Manager across Advantage! and the Raiders, when the award was announced on ITV Granada on Thursday evening.
“To be able to continue to provide what we’ve set up, providing sports and health and wellbeing activities for adults with a learning disability throughout Barrow and the Furness area. We have an enormous uptake in our sessions, sometimes reaching over 100 people each week."We started off with a rugby background and in Rugby League, but from that it's grown and we do every activity that anybody wants to participate in. We adapt sports to suit all different abilities."
The Raiders have become more firmly established than ever in the heart of the Barrow community under the energetic leadership of their Chairman, Steve Neale.
He was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of Advantage! in 2019, alongside Denis Fay, then a recently retired head teacher, and Siona Hartley, an experienced PE teacher who used to play football for Leeds United Ladies – with a focus on using Rugby League, sports and fitness to improve the lives of people in Barrow, a community with areas that suffer from high levels of deprivation.
