On the 20th March 2025, an Inclusive Youth Leadership event was held at Bob Jones Community Centre in Wolverhampton. This programme equips young people to deliver inclusive sport sessions to their peers and was led by one of Youth Sport Trust’s Lead Inclusion Schools, as part of the Inclusion 2024 programme funded by Sport England.

A key element of the programme involves Young Role Models, who are nominated to work with a Youth Sport Trust Athlete Mentor to deliver the event. One of the nominated young role models at the event was Felicity, a dedicated peer mentor at her school who supports Year 7 students. Although she had never taken part in an event like this before, she embraced the opportunity to share her story and inspire others. She was really surprised and shocked to be working with an athlete mentor and enjoyed sharing her experiences together with the other Young Role Models.

Felicity spoke openly about the challenges she faced in primary school. She had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to access support for her disabilities, however, she often felt unsupported and excluded, particularly in PE. This all changed when she joined her secondary school, where she has been able to take part in inclusive sport competitions and opportunities like Youth Sport Trust’s Inclusive Youth Leadership events

“…in my six years at my old schools, yeah, I was the only person with any form of disability that I knew. So I get to here and I see students with other disabilities…it was so nice to know I wasn't alone, and I was actually getting the right support I needed, which was such a big and amazing change.”

After delivering her story to the young people, Felicity felt more confident and supported the delivery of the event, where students learnt how to apply the STEP model to different activities so that they lead inclusive sports sessions for students at their schools.

Despite feeling nervous, Felicity was motivated to help others to ensure that all young people have the same opportunities in school sport:

“Well I guess the more people I can help better, because I don't want someone not get support like I did… I want people to get the same support, from primary school, all the way up, so that their opportunities are unlimited. I guess that's sort of what we're kind of aiming to do as sports ambassadors.”