WIREDGOV

More than a thousand people have now received training through Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training, part of the Active Kids for All scheme, designed to support more disabled people to be more active.

Funded by £1 million of National Lottery funding from Sport England, the training focuses on showing professionals and community workers how they can support the disabled people they have direct contact with to lead a more active lifestyle. Launched in 2013 following the success of Sainsbury’s Active Kids – which has donated £136 million worth of equipment and experience to nurseries, schools, Scouts and Guide groups, and accredited sports clubs - the Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training aims to train 10,000 people by 2016.

It is delivered by English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) – Sport England’s national partner for disabled people in sport – in partnership with Sports Coach UK. All the programme partners through this initiative have made a commitment to support more disabled people to be more active.

Lisa O’Keefe, Sport England’s Director of Insight, said: “Sport plays a really important role in keeping people active and improving health and wellbeing.

“If we are to encourage many more disabled people to play sport, we need to ensure that sport delivers what people want – but importantly we must make it so easy for disabled people, and all those organisations around them, to choose sport. I’m clear that Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training can help make that happen.”

To mark 1,000 successfully trained community staff and volunteers, the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) has produced two compelling videos telling the story of the scheme and how others can get involved.

Chris Ratcliffe, Director of Development at EFDS, said: “Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training allows us collectively to reach more disabled people through physical activity and sport, making active lives possible. At EFDS we are really excited to see the impact of this initiative unfold and these new videos give a great taster for the training.”

Tara Hewitt, Head of Sponsorship at Sainsbury’s said: “Our commitment to inclusive sport is brought to life at a local level through the Inclusive Community Training programme. I’m really pleased that our support has allowed so many people receive this specialist training which will result in more disabled people accessing sport and physical activity.”

Research from Sport England’s Active People Survey reveals that disabled people are less likely to take part in sport, with twice as many non-disabled people playing sport than disabled people (39.2 per cent compared to 17.8 per cent). Sport England is working to challenge and change this to enable disabled people to view taking part in sport as a viable lifestyle choice. Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training provides an opportunity to increase engagement, and support our vision that disabled people are active for life.

For more information on the training, visit EFDS’s website at: www.efds.co.uk.