Get Yourself Active partners with Sport England to support disabled people in getting active
National disability scheme Get Yourself Active has announced that it is one of over 120 organisations working with Sport England to increase access to sport and physical activity across England.
The partnership means that Get Yourself Active, which is led by Disability Rights UK, will receive £1.7 million in investment and support from Sport England. The organisations will exchange knowledge and expertise as it works together to co-deliver the ambitions of its 10-year Uniting the Movement strategy.
This funding, it says, will ensure that it can continue to support disabled people to get active in ways that are right for them.
Anna Denham, Programme Manager at Get Yourself Active said: “Since we began in 2015, we have worked tirelessly to increase Disabled people’s participation in sport and physical activity so that we can all experience its benefits.
“When our work began, we quickly saw how barriers prevent disabled people from getting active. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to get involved, but that many preventable barriers were stopping us.
“We are relishing the opportunity to make sure disabled people across the country exercise their right to get active however they want. We know that this support means that more disabled people will have the chance to feel good and have fun wherever they are.”
Sport England research shows that some groups are typically less active such as women, people with long-term health conditions, disabled people, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups.
The opportunities to get involved in sport and activity, and feel its benefits, it says, can depend too much on a person’s background, gender, bank balance, and postcode.
The funding will continue to upskill the social work and social care workforce around physical activity and its benefits so that Sport England can better support disabled people to be active.
Over £550million is being invested, with partners like Get Yourself Active receiving funding for up to five years. This new funding model from Sport England aims to provide longer-term financial security as organisations recover and reinvent from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sport England has stated that it selects all partner organisations that work to influence change and improvement at the heart of the system they are a part of no matter how big or small.