“The impact goes beyond the sport. I’ve witnessed how a single inclusive session can spark a ripple effect - from sport to employment to independent living”

Access Sport’s Changing Places Bristol programme is striving to make Bristol the best city in the country for an inclusive community.

We have supported Dan’s club Recreate Sport to run inclusive physical activity sessions for local disabled and disadvantaged young people.

With our support, Dan has been able to work full-time at Recreate Sports and has also come on board as a  Learning Inclusion Facilitator to deliver our Inclusive Training and Learning offer.

In the article below, Dan explores his path into inclusive community sport and the positive ripple effect it can have on underserved communities.

Article by Dan from Recreate Sport.

I often feel like I've done the journey in reverse. Last year, I completed my teacher training in secondary schools and I realised that actually sport and physical activity is still quite elitist. There’s always a group of enthusiastic students at the front of the line to go into the lesson, and the PE teacher is chatting to them, asking them how they got on at the weekend, while others linger at the back, hesitant and believing sport isn’t for them. With some students I spoke to, saying it's the lesson they looked forward to the least. From this, I asked myself - what if I could change that? What if I could recreate what sport and PE look like for these students?  

My passion for inclusive sport stems from my time as an Inclusion Officer and founding Walcot Warriors, the first Mixed Ability Rugby (MAR) team in South West England. The concept for this team was that disabled and non-disabled people come together, not as labels but as teammates, equals and friends. Labels only exist when I need to explain the idea, but once people are part of the team, it's just people playing sport together.

There was one young person on the team, when they were five they were in a mainstream school and they had a birthday party but they were so badly bullied that they never had a birthday party again. That changed when they joined the Mixed Ability team at 21 because they finally felt that they had found a safe place, where they had support and could make friends. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to set up five Mixed Ability teams in total with all of them having similar stories.  

Fuelled by wanting to do more, I started my own company Recreate Sport to provide positive physical activity experiences for all. I really emphasise “all” because we don't just work with disabled people, we also work with non-disabled people to provide confidence and hopefully promote a lifelong love of movement, physical activity and sport.  

My partnership with Access Sport has given me the confidence and scope to do this full-time. Over the past three years, they’ve provided me with the platforms and belief to deliver inclusive sessions and work on exciting projects like the Ignite Bristol network which has allowed me to work with other partners.

Through their support, Access Sport has given me the knowledge and network to specialise in a variety of sports where I can be creative with the delivery and break down the barriers. I'm trying to be as innovative as possible with how I deliver my sessions, whether that's through different resources or types of equipment, it’s trying to be as creative as possible to also build that confidence in the people I work with. This is also about having a much greater reach as I begin my role as a Learning Inclusion Facilitator with them. 

Confidence is a word I mention a lot because I know firsthand how hard it can be to build. The school that I went to in the area that I grew up in was in quite a deprived area. It was in the bottom 5% of the country, and I realised that actually I faced a lot of barriers. Combine this with being extremely overweight for my age, I was unable to access the things that my peers were being asked to do. Whether that was to complete a lap of the pitch as a warm-up,  cover the same distance as everyone else in cross country or sit on the bench in rugby until the team is enough points clear that you can come on. Going to these sport sessions or PE lessons meant that my confidence was low from the outset. Now I think I’m quite fortunate to have experienced these challenges as it has driven my passion to remodel and adapt how sport is delivered so all people can access it.  

And the impact goes beyond the sport. I’ve witnessed how a single inclusive session can spark a ripple effect - from sport to employment to independent living. Just recently, I saw a young person I worked with eight years ago, he was telling me how his confidence had grown from our regular sessions to go from volunteering to a job and now living independently. It’s not just about developing a person's skills, it’s about massively reducing social isolation. 

My short-term goal is for every young person or adult I work with to be confident enough to go and give sport or physical activity a go outside of my sessions, whether that is independently or with new friends. The longer-term plan is about influence, I'd like to have an impact on educators and providers who deliver lessons and sessions daily. Starting next year, I'll be working with 50 PE teachers on their inset days, delivering inclusion workshops that I have developed, through sports like Kinball. It’s a huge opportunity for me to spread my enthusiasm and knowledge to create a ripple effect so that teachers can go back to their schools and work with thousands of young people to make their lessons more inclusive, but also maybe make their students more aware of the empathy and understanding we need in this world to make sport and physical activity for all people.