Cherryl Thompson Disability Sport Adviser Bay of Plenty and Gisborne Halberg Disability Sport Foundation

The Halberg Disability Sport Foundation has been supporting disabled people in sport and recreation for the last 50 years. This has been made possible by working with regional sports trusts, schools and organisations. We believe by providing adaptations to their programmes already available in the community encourages inclusion of the disabled.

There are already many facilities in our communities doing a great job of providing services to include disabled people. The Club Finder section on our website www.halberg.co.nz shows clubs providing a variety of services to ensure disabled people can participate.

I'm sure many more clubs and facilities out there are also doing this and we'd love to add them to this free service. We also provide guidance and resources for organisations, pools, gyms or clubs on how they can adapt their services to include more people, including disabled people, and we can provide free training for staff.

A lot of the training we provide has been taken up by schools. Sport Bay of Plenty has supported the ethos of inclusion by providing pathways for disabled children and youth.

Inclusive events are available throughout the year on the Sport BOP school sport calendar for AWD –athletes with a disability – to represent their school. For many years regional athletics, swimming and various other codes' competitions have included AWD events. This means students represent their school alongside their peers – true inclusion.

This year will be the first time two sports – lawn bowls and table tennis – include AWDs at the NZCT AIMS Games. Schools are encouraged to provide intra-school opportunities through physical education and sport programmes with the assistance of our NET (No Exceptions Training).

Sport Bay of Plenty's Play in the Bay initiative features themed monthly calendars full of recreation opportunities in the greater Bay of Plenty area. The calendars, which are available at www.sportbop.co.nz/playinthebay or in local libraries, use the international symbol of a wheelchair to show events suitable or already adapted to include physically disabled people.

Another inclusive organisation is Parafed Bay of Plenty. Parafed caters specifically for physically disabled people and provides sports, recreation and advocacy opportunities throughout the region.

There are many choices at different levels to ensure opportunities for physically impaired of all ages to utilise the beach, park, pools and recreational facilities throughout the region. If you would like to know more, or would like to assist to enable inclusion in your area, email: cherryl@halberg.co.nz