Over the past few months, TeamSportz has been fortunate to connect with such an amazing organisation called Disability Sports Coach, which is a charity that provides award winning sport and physical activity opportunities for disabled people.
The work they do is both inspiring and impactful, with the several community clubs they host around London, providing access and inclusiveness to those with disabilities to be able to participate in almost any sport. Beyond that, they also host workshops for coaches all over to be able to gain the knowledge and tools it takes to deliver sport for disabled people. So not only are they doing something great within the organisation but they are trying to achieve a bigger idea of expanding opportunities in sport for people with disabilities by training coaches elsewhere.
In getting to know Emma Cranston, long-time Project Manager at Disability Sports Coach, we wanted to get a better inside look on the work they are doing as a charity, how they navigated COVID, what impact they’ve made so far and hopefully spread the word to as many people as possible.
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How it all started
Their CEO, Peter Ackred founded Disability Sports Coach in 2005. After 39 unsuccessful job interviews in the sports sector due to his stammer, Peter decided to go solo and began providing inclusive activity sessions at schools, colleges and organisations across London. As the demand for inclusive activities grew, Disability Sports Coach became a registered charity in 2012, successfully setting up and running 11 multi-sport Community Clubs across London that provide weekly sports activities for disabled people – regardless of age or impairment.
Since officially launching in 2012, their clubs have been hugely popular, now with a network of 14 clubs. With this programme, they’ve reached over 20,000 disabled people, with people telling Disability Sports Coach that their local club has been life-changing. Expanding on this, Emma Cranston shares, “Over 90% tell us they feel less lonely and isolated since joining, while over 70% are now doing twice as much weekly physical activity as they did before joining, which is improving their physical wellbeing. This highlights just how much regular inclusive activities are needed.”
Disability Sports Coach have a mixture of members who have supported them from the very start of their Community Club programme, interspersed with a healthy number of new participants who are keen to enjoy all the benefits which regular physical activity can bring. Emma says, “Our membership retention reflects positively on our workforce and the quality of our delivery, whilst gaining new participants demonstrates that we are still able to expand the reach of our services.”
How COVID affected Disability Sports Coach
With their core services being face-to-face, COVID hit them hard as they had to suspend their sessions for a considerable amount of time. With the global increase in mental health issues during this time, can you imagine how this impacted their members? Emma shares, “Many [of the members] expressed their sadness and frustration at not being able to attend physical activity sessions, which had become an integral part of their weekly routine as they got to enjoy sport while seeing friends.”
Luckily, they were able to figure out an alternative way to keep their members engaged, even if it meant being remote. Emma continues, “The pandemic provided us with an opportunity to innovate by pivoting our service delivery with the creation of our “Home Activity Programme”. This included the development of an online physical activity programme together with the creation of a home equipment initiative which resulted in approximately 2,000 sports equipment packs being distributed across London enabling disabled people to keep active from the safety and comfort of their homes.”
Even once COVID restrictions were lifted, there became a trend of members actually still enjoying the Home Activity Programme. While most still enjoy coming to the in-person sessions, Disability Sports Coach has found that many members will supplement their club visits with online physical activity sessions at times – following a more hybrid approach.
When asked what has been the most challenging aspect to date in running Disability Sports Coach, Emma says “Undoubtedly, the pandemic has been the biggest challenge we have faced. With all of our face-to-face activities closed, we’re proud of how we adapted our work to reach 2,000 disabled people through our free equipment packs, activity guides and online sessions. This wouldn’t have been possible without the vital support of partners like Sport England, the Mayor of London and the City Bridge Trust, who helped us respond so rapidly. We’re also hugely thankful to our members, who share their stories, insights and challenges, helping us to improve what we do.”
Expanding reach beyond Community Clubs
Over the past decade there has been a very slow, but evident increase in awareness of disabled people and as a result organisations trying to accommodate those individuals and incorporate adapted teachings into their physical activity programmes. In Disability Sports Coach’s experience, many schools and colleges have embraced inclusivity within their PE programmes and have worked hard to either upskill their own staff or call upon specialist services that they provide to ensure that all students are included in PE classes.
