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Lads and girls benefit from Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training

Staff and helpers who work at Lads and Girls Groups across the north of England are just some of those who have recently benefitted from Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training.

Several Youth Zones, stretching from Carlisle to Oldham and forming part of the OnSide network, have already enjoyed Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training, with three more ready to undertake further training this summer.

Inclusive Community Training, part of Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All scheme, is a creative, informal and informative workshop. It is designed to improve the skills and confidence of those who support disabled people to be more active.

Described as “opening the eyes” of participants, Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training celebrated its 1,000th trainee in the New Year and has dozens of further sessions arranged for 2015.

Youth Zones in Wigan, Blackburn and Carlisle are to benefit, in order to help make their youth centres accessible and welcoming to all, as part of OnSide’s aim to give young people quality, safe and affordable places to go in their leisure time.

In June 2014, a group of staff and volunteers from OnSide Youth Zones attended an Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training workshop organised by GreaterSport.

Stephen Pearson at OnSide Youth Zones said:

“We see this training as the first basic step to coaching young disabled people and so it helps us to build the capacity of our workforce.”

He went on to praise to content and quality of the training, run by English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) and sports coach UK:

“It enabled our staff and volunteers to think and reflect on their attitudes and values towards inclusion, get involved in practical delivery of activities and think about how these could be adapted to suit all individuals. It also prompted discussion and enabled people to share their experiences. Overall, the course provided a simple and clear framework for the delivery of inclusive activities and therefore was a great starting point for those with little experience delivering sports based activities.”

Jane Owen at GreaterSport, a charity focused on getting residents of Greater Manchester more active, added:

“This training has… enabled us to work together to increase the number of opportunities available to Youth Zone users, and to reach communities with which we would not otherwise be able to engage.”

You can view nationwide upcoming Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training events on the EFDS website, as well as finding out about Active Kids for All.

For further information, please contact EFDS, email AK4A@efds.co.uk or telephone 01509 227751. Find us on Twitter @Eng_Dis_Sport, Facebook and LinkedIn.