The Fishing Futures project is an angling initiative seen as providing Angling as a social and leisure activity providing its members with an alternative healthy lifestyle choice which will enhance and enrich their future lives. The project itself is not a standalone project, but relies on other project groups to participate, expanding leisure and social experience of the members of other projects feeding into Fishing Futures. Therefore Fishing Futures is markedly different having members across a wide diversity of groups and ages.
By becoming involved in an angling club, learning new angling skills and techniques, participating in outside angling events, meeting and mixing with new people and other groups members are provided with a sense of belonging, purpose and feeling of wellbeing. Angling will also provide a feeling of confidence which will allow the person join mainstream angling clubs thereby providing the angler with a life-time leisure activity which can be participated in, either within a club, social group or even alone. It offers an alternative lifestyle choice to “at risk” young people, marginalised or socially excluded groups and provides an opportunity to interact, make friends and meet a wide variety of people.
The Fishing Futures group affiliated the project with the Irish Federation of Sea Anglers through the establishment of an angling club “Cill Mhantáin Sea Angling Club”. The angling club provides all the members with access to provincial and national angling events and more importantly provides insurance for the club activities. Currently all monies for the operation of the project are lodged with the Wicklow Travellers Group and accounts are audited as part of this organisations overall financial accounts. The Board of the Wicklow Traveller Group has representatives on the steering group of the project.