Engaging more disabled people in the East Midlands- EFDS Regional Forum
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) employs Engagement Advisors who are based across England. As part of their role, they engage with those who support and influence disabled people to be more active across the nine English regions. One of the ways they do this is to facilitate regional forums.
Catherine Slater is the EFDS Engagement Advisor for the Yorkshire and East Midlands regions. Here, she provides an update on last week's Regional Forum for the East Midlands:
Catherine's update
The East Midlands Regional Forum took place on Thursday 26 March at SportPark in Loughborough.
This month's Forum, a sports clinic, was made up of National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and National Disability Sports Organisations (NDSOs), in particular England Netball, Tennis Foundation, Special Olympics GB, boxing, British Blind Sport and UK Deaf Sport.
Also in attendance were disability leads from each of the County Sports Partnership (CSPs) from the region: Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, Nottinghamshire.
The meeting began with a brief introduction from me to the group, as I have recently started in my new role as the Engagement Officer for East Midlands and Yorkshire.
Many of the people in attendance knew me as I previously worked within the region as a Disability Development Officer. It was lovely to see familiar faces as well as some new ones.
There were a number of presentations from Netball, British Blind Sport, UK Deaf Sport and Special Olympics GB. Each presentation was followed by a discussion, and all in attendance could ask questions.
Interestingly, this meeting raised the need for for CSPs to promote the Effective Communications Course on behalf of UK Deaf Sport, and to help with the promotion of the World Deaf Tennis event that will take place between 20-26 July at Nottingham Tennis Centre.
Special Olympics GB wants to work and support all counties. However, their priorities are Northamptonshire and Derbyshire as there is funding to support the building of infrastructure and delivery networks which do not currently exist.
England Netball is currently looking at their existing activity. They will develop by demand, due to limited capacity and resources. Currently there are 46 netball clubs that claim they are inclusive and netball will distribute a list of these clubs to each CSP so that they can make contact and offer further support and development.
Finally, there was also an opportunity to get Sainsbury's Active Kids for All Inclusive Community Training updates and future plans, and to introduce the potential of Nordic Walking into the mix of sport and activity across the region.
I am now looking at setting further dates through to next year where the Forum can continue to meet and build upon this progress.
If you have any questions about the opportunities available in the East Midlands, you can email Catherine Slater or call 01509 227750.
Additional reading: "Our Regional Forums are a fantastic opportunity".
