SASSOT Annual Report 2008 - 2009 - Sport Across Staffordshire

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Sports Equality and Diversity
NAOMI BIRD | Knowledge, Communications and
Equalities Manager
tel 01785 619 585
email nbird@staffordbc.gov.uk
Tackling sport inequalities has remained high on the agenda for SASSOT.
Efforts have been focused on achieving increased participation and widened
access amongst the following target groups: women and girls, black ethnic
minority communities, disabled people and those on lower incomes.
The work of ‘SASSOT Equality and Diversity Group’ has helped to steer the
work of the partnership in particular through the implementation of the
‘ACCESS Across Staffordshire Funding Scheme’. As the partnership looks back
on the past 12 months there have been positive steps forward towards addressing
inequalities.
As the Government continues to raise the profile of this important work area,
2009-2010 provides exciting opportunities to improve the quality of sport and
physical activity experiences by under-represented groups.
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Achievements
SASSOT ACCESS Across Staffordshire Funding Scheme has awarded over
£14,000 to various across projects across the county that provide sport and
physical activity opportunities for under represented groups
SASSOT Equality and Diversity Implementation Group have awarded over
30 individual projects, some of the successful projects include:
• Lichfield District Council - Girls Horse Riding Social Inclusion Project
• Stafford Town Football Club - Disability Team
• Burton Canoe Club - Girls and Women Paddlesport
• England – Black Minority Ethnic Communities Women’s Netball
• Badminton England - Girls and Women’s Project and Disability Festivals
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• Crescent Children’s Centre - Football for Low Income Families
• Staffordshire Cricket - Girls and Women’s Coaching Course
The completion of Staffordshire University research project into “The Barriers
to Participation within Staffordshire’s BME Population”
SASSOT has successfully been awarded the tender by the English Federation
of Disability Sport (EFDS) to deliver a County Athlete Assessment Day
for the national disability programme ‘Playground to Podium’
New links have been established with key roles that support young children
with disabilities, these include Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators
(SENCos) and the Physical Disability Support Service
01 Staffordshire FA, Ability Counts - Disability
League
02 East Staffordshire ‘Able Too’ Games
03 Girls horse riding project, Lichfield
Plans for the next 12 months
To continue to work with local sport and physical activity providers to raise
the awareness and provision of activities for those individuals from underrepresented
groups
To stage the County Athlete Assessment Development (CAAD) day as part
of the Playground to Podium project. This will involve over 100 young disabled
children from across the county taking part in a talent identification
process for athletics, football, table tennis and wheelchair basketball
SASSOT to become an active member of Staffordshire County Council’s ‘Aiming
High’ disability programme by linking into the work of the ‘Short Breaks’ sub group
To improve the training opportunities for equality based courses such as
Autism Awareness, Learning Disability and Sport Equity and engaging with
BME communities
www.sportacrossstaffordshire.co.uk 9