Disabled people across the country will have more opportunities to get involved in sport after Sport England announced 44 projects that will benefit from £10.2 million of National Lottery funding from its Inclusive Sport fund. The fund will help tackle the opportunity gap that sees one in six disabled adults playing sport regularly, compared to one in three non-disabled adults.
Britain's greatest Paralympian, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, believes the announcement is welcome news:
This funding will go a long way to helping those inspired by the outstanding performances of our Paralympians this summer to get out and try sport for themselves. It's fantastic to see such a wide range of organisations benefitting - all of them focused on helping more disabled people to discover how much sport has to offer.
The announced has also been welcomed by the Youth Sport Trust which is committed to increasing sporting opportunities for young people with a disability. Phil Chamberlain, Director of Policy and Communications at the Youth Sport Trust, said: "This announcement is great news as it is vitally important that we create as many sporting opportunities for disabled people as possible. We all saw during the Paralympics the amazing sporting achievements of Team GB which inspired so many of us. We must now ensure that young disabled people that witnessed the memorable summer and now want to take sport further have every opportunity to do so."
The Youth Sport Trust works in a range of ways to improve access to disability sport, one of which is Project Ability. One of the key aims of Project Ability is to have more young disabled pupils taking part in competitive sport. Through the School Games and a network of 50 lead Project Ability schools in England, each selected for their established expertise in engaging young disabled people, schools can improve the quality, and extend the provision, of physical activity for disabled pupils.
