An innovative project being delivered by Disability Sport Wales in partnership with and the City & County of Swansea Council aims to achieve Key Outcomes linked to the Welsh Government Agenda that include social inclusion, skills for life and wellbeing.
We aim to achieve this through our peer-support and mentoring project called ‘Roaring with Pride’ which will develop young disabled people, particularly those with a learning disability, through the delivery of sport leadership and volunteering opportunities that will prepare them to organise, support and deliver sporting activities and events in the community. Not only that, but through our existing youth forum young disabled people will have a voice on shaping the delivery of inclusive sport in Swansea to ensure more young disabled people can take up sport in the community. By providing such opportunities through the power of sport, young disabled people will have increased confidence, self-esteem and gain a range of transferable skills that can improve their future employability prospects and transform their lives.
We successfully launched the project on Tuesday 28th April at the LC2 in Swansea with representatives from Disability Sport Wales, CCSC, Learning Disability Wales, Colegau Cymru, Sports Leaders UK, Sport Wales, Young Ambassadors Cymru and Virgin Media.
The launch was opened by Gold Young Ambassador Alex Griffiths, who has been providing peer-support on the project to her fellow pupils at Bishop Gore High School. Following Alex was an inspiring speech by Jordan Rosser, Inclusive Futures mentor who has a learning disability himself, who’s key message was “…for the first time in my life I feel truly valued and part of something, and the ROAR project can help other young people with a learning disability feel the same.” We were brought to a close by Ieuan Coombes, Inclusive Futures Ambassador, who identified through his own experience as a long-term volunteer that “young people with a learning disability may have missed out on opportunities in the past but the ROAR project can go a long way in rectifying this.”
Moving forward with the project we aim to achieve the following objectives:
- Demonstrate to, and encourage, Local Authorities, other UK host cities and organisations nationally to take this approach to engage with Young Disabled People, particularly those with a learning disability, to take up sports leadership and volunteer roles through existing young people programmes such as Young Ambassadors.
- Adapt existing resources that will be in a format that will enhance the experience of Young Disabled People, particularly those with a learning disability, to ensure that they can routinely volunteer and contribute to society through sport.
- Ensure that young people with a learning disability are fairly represented on our existing young volunteer programmes such as Young Ambassadors in Swansea in the first instance before replicating Wales wide.
Further details on the project can be found on our Roaring with Pride document that is available in easy-read format.
For more information please contact Darren Wyn Jones at Disability Sport Wales darren.jones@disabilitysportwales.com
PROJECT OUTLINE - EASY READ:
