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EFDS celebrates first year of Inclusive Community Training Programme

In April 2014, after a series of pilot workshops, the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) and sports coach UK launched the Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All Inclusive Community Training Programme. This low cost training initiative, which is supported by £1 million of National Lottery funding from Sport England, has been designed to create new opportunities for disabled people to access physical activity and sport. Now at the end of the programme’s first year, over 480 individuals are using their learning from the Inclusive Community Training workshop to directly support disabled people in the community.

The attendees have included; parents, carers, support workers, healthcare professionals, volunteers and community based groups and organisations.

Feedback from participants has been extremely positive. Prior to the workshop only 34% of participants rated their confidence, skills and knowledge in the inclusion of disabled people in sport and physical activity as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, compared to 89% of attendees after the workshop.

In July, GreaterSport, one of the registered partners for the programme, arranged a workshop for staff and volunteers from OnSide Youth Zones. The training had an impact on the participants’ confidence, understanding of inclusion and ability to adapt games and activities, with attendees saying:

“The training was useful, it was delivered well and easy to understand”

“I learnt how to consider a number of things when adapting a game to suit all abilities”.

Stephen Pearson at OnSide Youth Zones said:

“We see this training as the first basic step to coaching disabled people. It helps us to build the capacity of our workforce and so we are exploring how we can embed the training as part of our volunteers induction programme.”

The initiative has not only had an impact on the participants, Jane Owen from GreaterSport said:

“The training has supported us to further develop our relationship with OnSide Youth Zones. It has enabled us to work together to increase the number of opportunities available to their users and to reach communities we would otherwise not be able to engage with.”

Another individual who has attended the Inclusive Community Training is Babs. She is a support worker from North Yorkshire. Before Babs attended the training most of the activity sessions she supported involved individuals ‘doing their own thing’. But now they deliver team games and activities which include everyone.

Babs said:

“The training has made me more confident in delivering group activities and has opened my eyes to how easy it is to adapt activities to include everyone”.

Some of the feedback received from other participants across England includes:

“This training will help me to promote healthy living, sport and activities to my service users. I think this initiative is highly important to support parents and carers and give them access to the tools available to them” NHS Carer, West Midlands.

“It changed my views and interest to try and be more involved with creating physical activity opportunities for disabled people” Volunteer, Nottingham.

The Inclusive Community Training is a three hour practical workshop, supported by online resources. To read more about the impact the programme is having on workshop participants across England, please visit our case study page.

For more information about the programme and to find out when workshops are taking place near you, please contact EFDS via email: AK4A@efds.co.uk or phone: 01509 227751.