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Melanie Short |
When I started working in the Sport and Recreation sector less than a year ago, I realised very quickly what a broad and diverse industry this is.
Sport Bay of Plenty work with a huge variety of groups and organisations with the underlying mandate of getting more people, more active, more often.
I've been particularly close to our recreation programme called Play in the Bay. This is a month by month themed view of different events and activities to help our communities get active and have fun, by providing information about what recreational activities are taking place in the Bay of Plenty.
The key priorities are ensuring the activities are entry level, low cost and accessible.
What has interested me is what this means – to be accessible.
I can see now through Play in the Bay and talking to various activity providers there is a sense of uncertainty around this – it's a bit of an unknown to start with.
I'm very fortunate to work with two very passionate women – Cherryl Thompson from Halberg Trust and Sophie Jackson from ParafedBOP.
Both Cherryl and Sophie have their own objectives through their roles but ultimately it is about closing the gap and making sure we think about small changes that can be made to encourage and involve people in our community who have a disability and who are just as keen as anyone to participate.
As we talk with recreational providers around the bay and openly discuss what changes these might be – it is great to see so many of the providers opening up their activities by being inclusive – and reaping the rewards!
More participants is the ultimate outcome for any club or group.
Having an open mind is the first step in being inclusive; talking to the Play in the Bay Recreation Providers, Cherryl or Sophie is the second step, all contactable via Sport Bay of Plenty.
I thoroughly enjoyed the London Olympics recently and although I'm only getting snippets of the Paralympics our 24 athletes representing New Zealand are making us proud! 11 medals and a few more days to go.