Sport England £508,530 fund boosts DSC Community Clubs
Disability Sports Coach (DSC) has received £508,530 from Sport England's Inclusive Fund to establish new and sustain existing DSC Community Clubs across the capital to provide local communities with sports sessions for disabled people over the next three years.
Building upon the interest in disability sports following the London Paralympics, new DSC Community Clubs will provide 10,000 people from over the age of 11 with structured sport and physical activity. The new funding from Sport England will see an increase in the number of DSC Community Clubs across the capital in 13 boroughs until 2018.
Peter Ackred, Disability Sports Coach CEO, said:
"Able bodied people have a multitude of facilities open to them to take part in sporting and fitness activities, but this is not the case for the majority of disabled people due to the lack of disability sports provision. This new funding is great news for disabled people in London as they will now have more opportunities to take part in a variety of sports and enjoy the benefits from being more active and healthy."
Sport England Director of Insight, Lisa O’Keefe, said:
“We are delighted to be able to help Disability Sports Coach provide more opportunities for disabled people to give sport a go. Record numbers of disabled people now play sport and it’s thanks to projects like this that we can continue to improve opportunities and make a real difference in communities.”
The number of disabled people playing sport regularly is at record levels, however, non-disabled people are still twice as likely to play sport as disabled people (39.2 per cent compared to 18.5 per cent) which is why Sport England continues to focus attention and investment to address this imbalance.
DSC is one of 44 projects across England that will benefit from £8.06 million of National Lottery investment from Sport England to open up more opportunities for disabled people to play sport.
To find out more information about the DSC Community Club programme or to attend a club near you visit the Community Club homepage.
In 2013, Sport England invested £2million into the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) to help accelerate our strategy to increase sports participation over two years. They have also directly funded six disability sports organisations to advise, support and guide other sports governing bodies as they create opportunities for participation by disabled people. British Blind Sport, Cerebral Palsy Sport, Dwarf Sport Association UK, WheelPower, UK Deaf Sport and Mencap Sport/Special Olympics GB all received a share of £1.3 million of National Lottery funding to make this happen.
