Sixteen-year-old Karen Goddard is
selective mute and has limited opportunities to interact with her
peers. Participation in sport hadn’t seemed an option for
Karen who finds it difficult to communicate with
strangers.
However, a chance encounter with Sport
England’s Sportivate programme, which offers six-week courses in a
range of sports, sparked Karen’s interest in wheelchair basketball
and she now plays regularly at her local club, Yeovil Lynx
Wheelchair Basketball. Sportivate has also inspired her to pursue
other sports including boccia.
Sportivate is a Lottery-funded Olympic legacy
programme aimed at 14- to 25-year-olds who are not currently
choosing to take part in sport in their own time. It’s fully
inclusive and so far nearly 5,000 disabled young people have
completed a sports course thanks to Sportivate.
Speaking about how Karen has responded to
taking up wheelchair basketball, her mother Heather Goddard said:
“This sport has done the world of good for Karen, before she barely
said a word but now her confidence has grown and she is slowly
interacting with her peers.”
Jack Hooper, who’s 16 and has learning
disabilities, is another who has enjoyed the sessions in Yeovil,
crediting the project with helping him make friends. He said: “I
really enjoy coming to the club and hope that I will always be able
to attend.”
Sportivate has also proved to be a hit with
young people at Westminster School in Sandwell in the West
Midlands. The school caters for young people with learning and
behavioural difficulties and wheelchair basketball sessions there
have been extremely popular.
It is clear that the students all enjoy the
sessions and many hope to continue playing sport. Brandon
Carson,15, is happy that he has been given the chance to take part
in a sport other than football. “I only used to play football”, he
said. “It’s good to have a change and try other things. I’d like to
try long jump and Parkour in the future”.
The sessions have also benefited 18-year-old
Toni, whose mother Gaynor Blunn said: “For Toni it’s been
brilliant. She doesn’t have much of a social life outside of school
so this gives her the chance to spend time with her friends. It’s
given her a lot of get up and go.”
“The kids enjoy the social side of the sport”,
said PE Teacher Ben Taylor. “Some of the kids live in quite
deprived areas and it’s good for them to have something to do. Most
of them think of PE as running around and wouldn’t have realised
that they could do sport in a wheelchair.”
Paul Hunt, Disability Co-ordinator at the
Albion Foundation which runs Sportivate at the school, said: “The
sessions have been really good. They allow the kids to see and
appreciate different disabilities.”
Sportivate is being delivered by the network
of 49 county sports partnerships, working with local clubs and
providers and will continue for a further three years. Over that
time more than 300,000 non-disabled and disabled young people will
benefit.