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Vote for our Reach project to win £25,000 Aviva Community Fund

The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) is proud to have the new Reach project nominated for this year's Aviva Community Fund. Now we're asking our supporters to vote for us during May and help us to win £25,000. 

The Aviva Community Fund offers support and funding to inspirational local projects in your community. EFDS could win £25,000 to fund the Reach project after insurance brokers Perkins Slade Ltd. nominated the charity in the Health, Disability and Well-being category.

Being healthy, playing with friends and having fun seems like very good reasons take part in physical activities. However, for many disabled people this is not possible. This is not because they can’t take part, but because many people who run activities are unaware of how they can make physical activities more accessible and inclusive for disabled people.

EFDS have shown us their commitment and dedication to help disabled people become active. They ensure their work is well-organised, solves problems and makes a difference. This project will help others benefit from their expertise and ensure disabled people have more opportunities to be active" (Perkins Slade Ltd)

EFDS through its Disability Sport Events (DSE) programme has over 50 years of experience supporting disabled people to take part in sport and physical activity. With disabled people less than half as likely to be physically active than non-disabled people, there are significant barriers that need to be addressed.

EFDS wishes to utilise the experience it has within DSE to help more disabled people to become more physically active, not just by putting on more community sports events, but by sharing their knowledge with community groups and sports organisations to put on their own inclusive sports activities.

EFDS proposes to tackle this problem by creating an online “Inclusive Health Check” and supporting resources to help community groups and sports organisations make their events inclusive.

This “Inclusive Health Check” will provide step-by-step guidance to groups to help them:

  • Understand the needs of different impairment groups
  • How to make physical activities more inclusive by adapting activities
  • How to remove physical barriers to participation
  • What logistical barriers to consider when organising activities
  • How to encourage disabled people to take part in physical activities

The “Inclusive Health Check” will be supported by a range of resources available through EFDS’s website, including guidance on using smart technology, how to access local funding and how to make sure marketing and communications are inclusive.

It is vital to share this good practice as a badly run disability sport event can stop disabled people from taking part in future physical activities and have a negative impact on them both physically and mentally. The “Inclusive Health Check” will help activities organisers to deliver high quality activities that will not only improve the health of disabled people, but also increase wellbeing, raise confidence and self-esteem, reduce social isolation and above all improve their quality of life.

Ben, an athlete from Telford, who came through Disability Sport Events said:

“Sport changed my life and has made me the person I am today. I can't wait for the next few years and possibly Rio! EFDS have been brilliant. I've been introduced to many sports via the Playground to Podium days. Also, I’ve had access to loads of different competitions, from beginner level upwards, until I was able to choose which one suited me best.”

Ellie, a student at Sheffield Hallam University, is now one of the best thrower’s in the country. She came to athletics after she left school, because:

“I hid away from sport all the time when I was younger. The idea of PE at school just put the fear of God into me, but now I’d be right out there at the front. I hid because I went to a school of non-disabled people, and I just didn’t want to put myself in the limelight… Three years ago I went to a ParalympicsGB sportsfest event. I walked into one and hadn’t any idea about sport whatsoever. But they asked me if I wanted to try throwing, and I thought ‘why not?’. I tried it and just fell in love with it.”

By voting for EFDS you can help disabled people to be active for life, improve their health and wellbeing and ultimately improve more disabled people's quality of life. The project will support local community groups and organisations across the UK, in the most sustainable way possible, by empowering them to make their activities inclusive for disabled people.

Register and log in now to get your 10 votes - you can spread them around or use them all to support one project. Vote here for EFDS's project.