Club Development
Disability participation in voluntary clubs still remains very low, less
than 1%. Link4life has four examples of where this very low figure is
being challenged. These success stories demonstrate a genuine case
of turning the corner. Disabled participants will begin to enjoy the
same quality of choices and opportunities that non-disabled people
experience. This will provide fantastic opportunities for disabled
people to develop and strengthen friendships, build skills, fitness and
strength in the sports they love doing.
Boccia
Every year Greatersport the GM county sports partnership run 2 sports event with over
3500 young people attending. This includes disability sports. Rochdale each year sends a
Boccia team to compete against 14 other boroughs. The GoClub funding has enabled for the
first time Link4Life to provide trainings seasons specifically for the event. This enables the
participants to build skills and mentally train for a competitive environment. We had 3
young people on the first session and 5 on the second. We have 3 more to go. As an added
bonus we had Daniel Wain who trains with Boccia England attend the session. Daniel is also
a previous participant of Sunsport. This is a very significant step forward because it draws in
the support of families away from school and targeted provision. These are the first steps
into the voluntary run sports club environment, which is where the vast majority of
provision occurs in the UK
Jay says that he is “a very competitive person and will try his hardest at any sport”
Participants are
Jay Cleere and his mother, Bracken, Rhais Khalid and his friend
Basketball
Funded through GoClub a new Rochdale based Wheelchair Basketball team called the
Rochdale Raptors. The team has been set up by ex Sunsport participant Jamie Westermen.
Jamie has Cerebral Palsy. The team uses the Wheelchairs funded through Short Breaks and
Jamie also recently became a qualified Wheelchair basketball coach funded through short
breaks. Running the club is quite a big task so to ease work they have agreed to be jointly
managed by the Hornets Wheelchairs Rugby Team who will fund raise and assist in
developing the team
Wheelchair Rugby
Rochdale Hornets Wheelchair Rugby Team part of the Rochdale Hornets family started
primarily as an Adult Team linked with the armed forces covenant grant. Because there has
been interest from young people the club have started a development team which will
support young people. Hornets semi pro player Mike Ratu has been coaching sessions on
Sunsport who have then been signposted to the development training session. The
development team will enable young disabled people to have the same experience a nondisabled young person experiences. Attended a sport they enjoy and being offered coaching
pathways which can potentially support them right through to adulthood.
Football
Initially developed through Redwood School and Garry Smith the team have now become a
fully integrated part of the Bridge Juniors Football team which is the biggest junior club in
the borough. They train every week and compete in the North West Ability Count’s league a
national initiative for young disabled people. They team are called Bridgeability. Garry Smith
attends school linked football events to identify young players for the team. They have over
15 attending regularly. The young people come from mixture of mainstream and additional
need school backgrounds.
Comments from some of the young players
“I like being able to travel to new places”
“I like meeting new people”
“I enjoy the football”
“I really look forward to the game”
“It’s a great way to meet up with some old school friends”
“I like to improve my skills”
“I enjoy the football matches”
“it keeps me fit”
I also spoke to Aimee Duffy from Outreach
Amy said the 3 young people they support love coming to the game and have been coming
for months. They get really excited about it. Aimee also mentioned how it is a much more
affordable form of recreation for them and the family. The cost of the cinema would be £6
whereas the football is £1. Aimee did also mention that continued support of the football
might actually hit blockages if the family were directly involved because of cost and
transport. I am going to speak with Team Manager Garry Smith about possibly using GoClub
money to provide a taxi fare and possibly a support worker to get them to the central
collecting point for the minibus when they go to compete in Preston for the ability counts
league. First game on the 25th February