£150,000 boost for SportsAble in Berkshire
Disabled people in Berkshire will have more opportunities to get involved in sport after SportsAble, on behalf of Inclusive Sport Berkshire, received £157,200 of funding from Sport England’s Inclusive Sport fund.
The club 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.
SportsAble will use the funding over the next 3 years to establish a personalised approach to the promotion of inclusive sport across the county of Berkshire. The approach will be driven by disabled people, centred on the requirements of individuals and focused on reducing psychological barriers to participation.
The project will:
- Build Connectivity with mainstream organisations working with disabled people, in order to open up pathways to participation,
- Develop our network of inclusive sport hubs, so they act as one stop shops, providing individualised support to 500 people per year and
- Develop progression pathways in 20 Sports, including the training of 150 coaches, to make it easier for individuals to continue to enjoy sport.
SportsAble’s Chairman, Vivienne Davies, said:
“We are absolutely delighted to be receiving funding from Sport England’s Inclusive Sport Fund. It means a great deal to the club and its partners as it provides invaluable funding to help us extend the opportunities for disabled children, young people and adults in Berkshire to get involved in sport.”
Sport England Director of Insight, Lisa O’Keefe, said:
“We are delighted to be able to help SportsAble & Inclusive Sport Berkshire provide more opportunities for disabled people to give sport a go. Record numbers of disabled people now play sport and it’s thanks to clubs 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 on the rise. In December 2013, Sport England’s Active People Survey - an annual, in-depth measure of the nation’s sporting habits – revealed that a record number of disabled people in England now play sport each week. 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.
Sport England’s Inclusive Sport Fund supports programmes that aim to increase the number of disabled people playing sport. Since the fund launched, £17.1 million has been invested in 88 projects that make sport a viable lifestyle choice for disabled people.
As well as funding disability sport programmes, Sport England also funds equipment. In addition to today's £8.06 million announcement, Sport England also recently awarded £1 million to 141 clubs across England to help them buy equipment to open up sport to disabled people.
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.
