"I remember saying to somebody, my sons just kicked a ball for the first time, purposely kicked a ball, not just by accident because he's walking past it. Just by providing an opportunity, your children sort of surprise you."

Access Sport’s Changing Places programme focuses on filling a gap so that disadvantaged and disabled young people can experience the life-changing benefits of community sport.

Access Sport helped launch inclusive sessions at the Bridge Community Centre in 2021 to encourage local disabled young people to get active and come together as a community.

By training, equipping and upskilling local people, like Becca, sessions now run regularly, providing disabled young people and their families a permanent community where the participants can enjoy the joy of community sport.

In the below article, Becca, a parent and club leader, explores the impact of this growing inclusive community and the changes she has seen in her own child.

Article by Becca from The Bridge Community Centre

The club started in May 2021 and was originally funded by Access Sport. It’s held at The Bridge Community Centre. I am a mum of a child who's autistic, so when we first went along, I remember it being hard for him to be in a new place. But because we live close and we could go regularly, it became a haven for us. Our child could be exactly himself. Most recently, I've been involved in helping to run it and get funding for it as well.

There's a nice aura there when you go; everyone just looks so happy. There’s a sense of joy being there. And I just really like seeing families feel like their child deserves this. Deserves to have a place to come, to be involved and to feel like someone's thinking of their needs as valued members of the community.

We need that as a family, because the weekends can be isolating. I even find myself going into the weekend not dreading it, but I used to dread it. Just because I used to think, well, what are we going to do to stimulate our child and provide something for them? So, it sort of demonstrates the need for it, the fact that families keep coming back and that it’s valuable.

Sometimes, places we’ve gone to before, like soft plays or trampoline parks, there are certain rules or certain things that you know are expected. It's all those unwritten things that he would really struggle with. So that puts the pressure on you as a parent, which transfers pressure onto him subconsciously, so if you're under stress, he picks up on that. That pressure release means that you can't just enjoy being there.

Whereas, at the sessions, the environment is a safe one, and as a parent, you can take a breath or a moment, and that feels nice. A family came to our group for the first time in the summer this year, and the mum said it's so nice to come somewhere where I don't have to explain anything. I think it can be a real huge weight of responsibility off for families.

I remember the first ones we went to when it was first being run by Access Sport. I remember saying to somebody, my sons just kicked a ball for the first time, purposely kicked a ball, not just by accident because he's walking past it. Just by providing an opportunity, your children sort of surprise you.

I think especially children who are autistic, they sort of do things in their own time and space. If you can provide a space where there's no pressure and allows them to explore and be themselves, they're much more likely to want to try something. It helped us think of other things that we could try and other places we could go.

We really enjoy just meeting other families there. We got to meet families from my son's school and that was nice because his school is far away, and he gets picked up on a transport bus, so you don't have the same drop-off scenario. You can forge nice connections and links, and understand other families in similar positions.