Shropshire Inclusively Fit Project gains significant grant award

News from our partners Shropshire Providers Consortium

Shropshire Providers Consortium, and its partners Energize (County Sports Partnership), Shropshire Disability Network, Figaro, Headway Shropshire, South Shropshire Furniture Scheme, Shropshire Football Association and Shropshire Council’s public health. are excited today about the announcement of the award of the Reaching Communities Big Lottery Grant.

The grant is for £241,000 and the four-year project is called the “Shropshire Inclusively Fit Project”.  There is additional funding from Shropshire Council’s public health team and Energize (County Sports Partnership), taking the total project to £282,500.

An inclusive officer will be employed to:

• Reduce social exclusion and health inequalities by raising awareness and opportunities for engagement within sports clubs and societies for people with disabilities in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin
• Identify current exercise and sport provision for people with disabilities (mental and physical) in Shropshire
• Run a travel and equipment bursary for people with disabilities in Shropshire
• Raise awareness and find practical solutions for sports and social clubs throughout the county to make adaptations to facilities, and become more inclusive as a body with more accessible activities for people with disabilities
• Develop a buddy volunteer scheme to provide support to, and at events for, people with disabilities to attend and participate in
• Run sport taster sessions across the county for people with disabilities and clubs.

Social isolation for young people with disabilities people increases substantially after leaving education: young people can become isolated, with no peer support to help engage in sports or social activities.  Coupled with Shropshire rurality making travel difficult, this can be a real problem.

The project aims to make sport and physical activity more accessible to people with disabilities, providing a web-based resource of what’s available, transport and equipment support, and most of all a volunteer buddy to go along with for the first few visits.  We all know how difficult it can be walking into a gym or sports club for the first time; imagine how that must feel if you have disabilities and have no idea what facilities are available to you, or how people may react to you?

The partnership will be governed by a steering group made up of the above partners and users with disabilities.

Ruby from Shropshire Disability Network stated:

“It is fantastic that people with disabilities will now have opportunity to engage in sport and physical activity in a way that has been impossible for many, due to transport and rural issues.  The buddy scheme and bursaries will enable those that want to, to have a go; it gives them opportunity.”

Shropshire Providers Consortium would like to thank Shropshire Council’s sport and leisure, and public health, teams, and Energize, for use of their surveys and statistics, and Shropshire Disability Network for their consultation with the target group.