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Blog: “We love supporting local disabled children into athletics”

Activity Alliance enables organisations to support disabled people to be active and stay active for life. So, this year we are sharing great stories from both sides – how organisations are working to make active lives possible, and the direct impact their work is having on individual disabled people. Today, Rachel Miller, Managing Director at Smile Through Sport tells us about how they support disabled people of all ages, and their families, across the North East to become and stay active together.

Person running on running track with Smile Through Sport logo in the background.

Rachel smiling to camera Hi, my name is Rachel and I’m the managing director at Smile Through Sport. We are a social enterprise and we work to provide grassroots sports opportunities to disabled people of all ages across the North East. We were founded by six time Paralympian Stephen Miller, who is also my husband. As an organisation we are not looking for the next Paralympian but to simply make sure every disabled person has access to good sports opportunities.

Our priority at Smile Through Sport is to support disabled people of all ages to become and stay active together as a family. Our project is based in the North East and sessions run in towns across the county.

Our sessions are not just about improving performances to win medals, we focus on being the best you can be while having fun. A lot of our work is done outside of the sport setting such as in care homes, day centres and community centres.

We also work really hard to compliment the great work other organisations are doing. One of those organisations is Activity Alliance and its Junior Athletics Championships which sees over 1000 disabled athletes compete across England for a place at its annual national Championships.

This year we were proud to be the lead organisation at the North East regional championships. We worked alongside Gateshead Council, Cedars School and South Tyneside Council to put on this regional event.

Events like Activity Alliance’s National Junior Athletics Championships are important in giving young disabled people the chance to reach their potential in a new sport. For most of our North East participants the regional and national competition is the peak of their year. The schools love the weekend of the Championships. At Smile Through Sport we love the fact we are able to introduce our local young people to athletics for the first time. To then watch them go on to compete at a national level with Activity Alliance is great to see.

Stephen Miller, our founder, took part in Activity Alliance's Championships when he was younger. He feels these Championships give young people a unique chance to discover their talent and potential whilst having fun and meeting friends.

Our partnership with Activity Alliance is invaluable to us - we are able to access a wealth of insight, research and knowledge which helps us to better deliver our sports activities. This has a great impact on our participants.

Visit Smile Through Sport to find out how they can support families across the North East to be active.

Partnerships ensure Activity Alliance can have greater impact on more disabled people’s lives. If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities through our events programme, or have an enquiry please contact Jannine Walker, National Events Manager – jannine@activityalliance.org.uk or call 0161 228 2868.