Our CEO and Development Officer were delighted to attend the Sport and Recreation Alliance 2020 Community Sport and Recreation Awards on Friday. We were so honoured to be a finalist for the Youth Development Award in recognition of our Skills Award Programme.

In 2017 we launched the Boccia Skills Award focusing on the importance of developing young people’s character traits which are vital in wider life and employment. The three-year programme is aimed at young people in secondary schools with a physical or learning disability. Through playing boccia in an extra-curricular club setting over a 10-week period, young people capture their progress against five key life skills; communication, resilience, responsibility, innovation, evaluation.

The Skills Award provides a platform for young disabled people to access an accessible sporting activity outside of the national curriculum. The schools that receive the award are given resources and equipment to deliver the award. Once completed, schools are then in a position to continue the delivery of boccia to the same audience or give the opportunity for new students to access the programme.

Following the completion of the skills award programme within their school setting the young people are provided with details for their local boccia club for the pupils to continue to develop both their boccia skills and the life skills learnt through the skills award and apply them in a different setting.

We have achieved some fantastic results from our programme and would like to thank Youth Sport Trust, BBC Children in Need, and Masonic Charitable Foundation for their continued support.

To find out more about the Skills Award and other schools offers, contact Dan Headley on [email protected]