INSPIRE TO LEAD PROJECT
Leadership accreditation, volunteering and employment opportunities for disabled people
• Increase the number of disabled people accessing and attaining leadership courses and qualifications.
• Increase the number of disabled people involved in the Step into Sport process.
• Alter the perceptions of the accessibility and suitability of courses by both providers and applicants.
• Collate examples of good practice to further enhance existing resources and develop new supporting resources for current Leadership products.
• Identify important factors around positive and accessible volunteering opportunities and develop supportive resource for the process.
Leadership and volunteering opportunities provide a context where disabled people can develop the skills, aptitudes and confidence to play an active role within wider society and in doing so become inspirational figures that challenge peoples perceptions of disability. The expected impact of the Inspire to Lead project is a decrease in the barriers faced by disabled people in accessing these opportunities.
Please see below to find out more about the current work of the Inspire to Lead project.
Inspire to Lead in partnership with Sports Leaders UK
The inspire to lead project has so far provided the opportunity for 127 young disabled people to access sports leaders qualifications through supporting 9 leadership sites. Further to this the project has worked alongside Sports Leaders UK (SLUK) to develop an inclusion workshop - Including disabled people in your leadership courses.
The aim of the workshop was to support existing tutors with practical strategies and ideas in how to differentiate and deliver the core elements of a Sports Leaders UK award to disabled candidates of all abilities.
Eight tutor training days have hosted the inclusion workshop from November 2008 through to the current date. Over 65 delegates took part in the training each with varying degrees of experience and each from very different backgrounds. The training course has received a very positive review – a full report will be available to download in due course.
To ensure that everyone can access the content of this workshop and the good practice shared Sports Leaders UK will shortly be providing an online toolkit (accessible via their website). We will update you with the progress of this website in due course.
Inspire to Lead in partnership with Youth Sport Trust
In partnership with Youth Sport Trust, we have developed two resources to support you to provide leadership and volunteering opportunities for disabled people:
1. ‘Introducing and developing leadership skills in young disabled people’. This resource is full of practical activities and ideas focussed around five key leadership themes: communication skills, planning and preparation skills, organisation and delivery skills, evaluation and feedback skills and personal and social skills. This resource also includes sections on physical education and sports leadership across the curriculum and identifying gifted and talented disabled leaders through sport.
2. ‘Developing young disabled people through sports leadership and volunteering’. This resource has been created through the collation of good practice gathered to demonstrate the impact of sport education, leadership and volunteering on young disabled people and how to ensure opportunities within these areas are accessible through a strategic partnership approach.
Both resources will be sent to every School Sport Partnership in the new school term. Additional copies of the first resource will be available to buy from the YST Direct website - www.ystdirect.org.
We will also be further distributing the second resource to networks nationally. For your copy of this resource please contact EFDS national office or alternatively download an electronic copy by following the link below:
Inspire to Lead – Research Project
In addition to the resources the Inspire to Lead project has been developing a piece of research which aims to explore the leadership and volunteering experiences of young disabled people, with specific reference to barriers faced and possible solutions in accessing community sport volunteering opportunities. It is hoped that the solutions raised from this research will increase the accessibility of volunteering opportunities within a community setting.
As part of this research a literature review on volunteering, disability and sport has been conducted. To access this literature review, please select the link below:
Please keep visiting this page in the future for further updates
For further information on the Inspire to Lead Project please contact EFDS East Midlands on E.F.D.S.East-Midlands@lboro.ac.uk Tel; 01509 226 173
