Disabled people in Tower Hamlets will have more opportunities to get involved in sport after Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre received £108,875 of funding over three years from Sport England’s Inclusive Sport fund.
The centre is one of 44 projects across England that will benefit from £8.06 million of National Lottery investment from Sport England to open up more opportunities for disabled people to play sport.
Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre is a local charity, started in 1976, for the community in Tower Hamlets. It helps to develop the potential in young people through providing outdoor and adventure activities.
The centre will use its funding to deliver regular coaching sessions and programmes in adventure activities for people with disabilities. The money will help recruit an inclusion coordinator, train staff and help with purchasing specialist equipment to help people with disabilities take on challenges in outdoor adventure. Eventually the aim is to open a water sports and adventure activities club for people with disabilities.
Centre Director, Mike Wardle, said: “We are over the moon and so excited to be receiving funding from Sport England’s Inclusive Sport Fund. It means a great deal to the centre, the community and the borough. It will help children, young people and adults in the local area and beyond access outdoor sport in a safe and challenging environment. The centre wants to use the money to offer; canoeing and kayaking, orienteering, sailing and rowing to the disabled community”.
Sport England Director of Insight, Lisa O’Keefe, said: “We are delighted to be able to help Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre provide more opportunities for disabled people to give sport a go. Record numbers of disabled people now play sport and it’s thanks to organisations like this that we can continue to improve opportunities and make a real difference in communities.”
The number of disabled people playing sport regularly is on the rise. In December 2013, Sport England’s Active People Survey – an annual, in-depth measure of the nation’s sporting habits – revealed that a record number of disabled people in England now play sport each week. However, non-disabled people are still twice as likely to play sport as disabled people (39.2 per cent compared to 18.5 per cent), which is why Sport England continues to focus attention and investment to address this imbalance.
Sport England’s Inclusive Sport Fund supports programmes that aim to increase the number of disabled people playing sport. Since the fund launched, £17.1 million has been invested in 88 projects that make sport a viable lifestyle choice for disabled people.
As well as funding disability sport programmes, Sport England also funds equipment. In addition to the £8.06 million announcement, Sport England also recently awarded £1 million to 141 clubs across England to help them buy equipment to open up sport to disabled people.
For more details about the project at Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre, please contact Mike Wardle on 020 7481 4210 or mike.wardle@shadwell-basin.org.uk
Sport England is focused on helping people and communities across the country create a sporting habit for life. We will invest over £1 billion of National Lottery and Exchequer funding between 2012 and 2017 in organisations and projects that will:
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