National News

 

EFDS Seeking new members for Board

Now is a fantastic time to be involved in sport, with London 2012 Paralympics set to inspire many more disabled people. Another exciting opportunity has arisen for individuals to join as members of the Board of Directors at the English Federation of Disability Sport.

The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) is the national body responsible for developing sport for disabled people in England. We work closely with our core funder Sport England and key partners to develop opportunities and build awareness of the issues that affect disabled people’s participation in sport and drive up their participation.

Following our success in recruiting in April, we are seeking to further strengthen our Board by appointing new members, who could bring additional skills and a fresh perspective to leading our organisation.

We are also seeking to appoint a new Chair for EFDS to allow our current Chair, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE to “pass on the baton”. For the role of Chair we are particularly keen to attract an individual with exceptional leadership qualities, excellent communication skills and good awareness of the challenges and opportunities facing disabled people in sport. There is the potential for this role to be remunerated and this will be discussed with interested applicants.

All applicants are asked to submit a skills assessment form, a CV and covering statement. This can be downloaded from the EFDS website or sent to interested people on request.

Applications received by Friday 26 August will be considered by EFDS in September.

To discuss the positions please contact Barry Horne, CEO on bhorne@efds.co.uk  / telephone 01509 227755.

 

Click here for full story and supporting documents

 

---

  

New project to challenge prejudice facing fitness instructors with disabilities

YMCA Fitness Industry Training (YMCAfit) and Aspire, a national charity supporting people with spinal cord injuries, have published findings from Instructability, a ground-breaking project which sets out to increase employment of disabled fitness professionals.

The pilot project which is the first of its kind in the UK offers Level 2 fitness instructor training specifically for disabled people, leading to an internationally recognised qualification. Once qualified, participants are given support to find placements and employment in the fitness industry - half of the participants on the Instructability pilot are now in employment.

The Instructability approach will proactively support and train those with disabilities to hopefully secure employment in the fitness and leisure sectors.  It is hoped that this will help tackle the massive under-representation and the prejudice which people with disabilities who work in the health and fitness sector still face.

 

Both YMCAfit and Aspire have secured Government funding to roll out the Instructability programme across London.  Longer term the aim is to secure local and national public service contracts for continued delivery, to increase links with more employers, and to create greater public awareness of disability issues in fitness and wider industries.

 

Click here for full story

 

---

 

CALLING ALL CEREBRAL PALSY FOOTBALLERS!

National Sports Development Officer, Dermot Dolan from the charity CP Sport, will be running a number of football developments days and regional festivals for ambulant players with cerebral palsy, starting on the 11th June in London. Similar events will be taking place throughout the country in later months.

 

Each of our football development days link in to a regional festival event and are aimed at attracting new individuals to play the game of cerebral palsy football. These days are open to boys and girls aged 7 and above. We want to get young people together to enjoy the game of football in a safe environment, where they can have fun, develop their football skills and make new friends along the way. The development day in London on the 11th June will be followed by a regional festival at the London Soccerdome on the 18th September to give people a chance to experience playing a game of cerebral palsy football against other teams.

 

The regional festivals are open to individuals and teams aged 7 and above. Individuals who want to play but don’t currently have a team will be allocated a team to play for on the day. Hopefully, if we get enough numbers we can create some one off teams. It doesn't matter how good you are at the game of football, male or female, if you have cerebral palsy, are ambulant and want to play cerebral palsy football, you are welcome to come along to one of the regional festivals.

 

If you’re a parent, player, teacher or coach looking to start your own ambulant cerebral palsy football team this could be just the start you need. To register for one of our football events please visit www.cpsport.org/football

 

For more information please contact Dermot Dolan on 07974 655 539 or email dermot.dolan@cpsport.org. You can also follow Dermot on twitter @cpsportfootball

 

---