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The national charity and leading voice for disabled people in sport and activity

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International Youth Day: Supporting young disabled people to be active for life

Tuesday 12 August is International Youth Day. Led by the United Nations, the campaign this year is focussing on ‘Youth and Mental Health’. The intention is to raise awareness and ensure young people with mental health conditions can lead full and healthy lives. The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) recognises the impact that participation in physical activity has on mental health as well as overall health and well-being, especially in young disabled people.

The EFDS lifestyle report, released in September 2013 showed that young disabled people are most likely to take part in sport or physical activity because it is fun and 84% of young disabled people enjoyed the last time they played sport. The report also found that 51% of the disabled people surveyed did not enjoy their experiences of sport in school.

The Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All Inclusive PE Training Programme, delivered by EFDS, aims to address this issue by supporting teachers to fully include young disabled people in the PE curriculum. It is a free training initiative which has been specifically designed to improve the quality of PE provision for young disabled people in mainstream schools across the UK.

Barry Horne, Chief Executive of EFDS said of the training:

“The experiences a young person has at school significantly impact how active they are in adult life. As a result, high quality, inclusive PE is essential to inspire and encourage young disabled people to lead a full and active lifestyle through sport. The Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All Inclusive PE programme is an invaluable and freely available training initiative, designed to improve teachers competence in providing fully inclusive and positive PE experiences to all young people.”

The EFDS lifestyle report also showed that lack of awareness of suitable opportunities prevents young disabled people from taking part in sport or physical activity.

The Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All Inclusive Community Training Programme, delivered by EFDS and sports coach UK hopes to create new opportunities for disabled people of all ages to participate in sport and physical activity. Through this low cost training initiative, 10,000 individuals who support disabled people in the community will receive training to increase their knowledge, competence and confidence in delivering sports based activities to disabled people. The training also reaches people who would not have accessed sport or activity before, as well as those who have never considered sport to be for them.

To date, over 330 individuals from a range of community groups and organisations, including the YMCA and other youth organisations have benefitted from the training. One of the workshops that has been delivered was for a group of volunteers from Heswall Disabled Children's Holiday Fund.

The volunteers who attended this training found the skills they learned very relevant to their role providing a range of activities to a group of 30 disabled young people, the feedback included:

“What an amazing afternoon, thank you so much for making that happen, we are all inspired. It was all fun yet incredibly informative and practical, so a big thank you to all”

For further information about the Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All Inclusive PE Training or Inclusive Community Training programmes, please contact EFDS via email: AK4A@efds.co.uk or telephone: 01509 227751.