2022: What Does Inclusive Sports have in store?

2022 is going to be bigger and better than ever.

2021 was a banger of year for us here at Inclusive Sports. But we’ve told you enough times about how and why 2021 was so great- why don’t tell you why we think 2022 is going to be even better? We want to grow the team even more! We are always on search for Inclusive Practitioners for our PA service throughout weekends and evenings. We are also after inclusive sports coaches to deliver our sessions throughout the week, maybe even on a full time basis! If you’re interested in either of these roles and you would like to get involved with Inclusive Sports, please go to our contact page, and get in touch! We are also launching a new way of helping Inclusive Sports! Coming early in the new year we want to create a hub where we can hold raffles for you all in a way to give back. We are also opening a domain where we can accept donations at any time, as well as a wish list where you can donate gifts to us. This will help us adapt our sessions to be even bigger and better than they already are, and will also allow you to get involved! We are also working to make our social media more inclusive! Being new to the role I have adapted where I can- however there is always room to make the online services more accessible to wider audiences. If you have any suggestions or if you struggle with any of our online services at all, please let us know and we will try our best to tailor our online platforms. We have also listened to your feedback carefully and made sure that all of our sessions will be curated to exactly what you like to do when you’re here. We are reshaping our service offer to make sure that we are addressing those who need help the most, and that every session is one that everyone will enjoy. We are always open to suggestions, so if you have any you would like to put forward or missed our survey please pop an email over to caitlin@inclusivesportsacademy.org! We also want to introduce more trips and camps after the success that we had last year. We know that with Kat as our project manager that they are going to go just as well as they did last year. We have now built up an amazing group of workers and volunteers that are both qualified, trustworthy and will deliver the best session possible. Our next one won't be too far away either- keep your eyes on our socials! A few other little projects are also in the works- that we’ve hinted to in our Inclusive Resolutions... Of course, we are bringing back our trips to Meriden with Inclusive Families and more outdoor provision. We had to put this on hold a little while as let’s be honest- who wants to be outside in the freezing cold and rain? But the good news is that we are starting them back up as the weather gets a little better. Weather providing we will be bringing back most of our outdoor activities across the vast majority of our sessions. We often put these on hold mainly for the safety of our participants, as we appreciate it is a sensitive time of the year to end up getting poorly! Similarly to this, we also love how successful our youth gaming clubs were so we are more than certain we will be bringing them back in the new year and better than ever! We intend to move these activities into the weekend, stemming further than after school provision and into services that provide a social outlet for children and young people, as well as respite for parents. This will be an opportunity to make friends, get active and social as well as reduce isolation. The gaming nights will continue as will Inclusive Families, just with more hours provided! We are also looking to introduce a sibling club after seeing that a lot of our participants love to bring along their brothers and sisters, so they can join in on the fun too! Instead of having to constantly enquire internally about this, we would love to make this one of our regular groups throughout the week. Working similarly to our Inclusive Families club but with just a younger audience. We believe that not only socialising with other children is important but the bonding between siblings outside of home and school is also imperative, especially for busy parents or those who may not be able to financially provide these activities for their children. Inviting professionals to these clubs and the rest of our sessions to hopefully inspire and teach our participants will also be introduced. This will be across a range of different genres and also tailored to each session and the participants there. A few that we’ve already had was the fantastic Mo teaching our children and young people squash as well as the animal man bringing in his wonderful pets to our holiday camps, and of course the amazing Chris from Black Train Music doing a number of music activities with us! If you specialise in a particular field that you believe our participants would be interested in, please get in touch, we would love to hear from you and share your knowledge with our participants! Of course we will also be continuing to celebrate diversity and inclusion across everything that we do. We are constantly tailoring and adapting to whatever is going on in the world- one of which being the 2022 commonwealth games. We will also be changing up what we do to each season in out of term time for participants- so look out on our socials for all of these different events! We also want to ensure all of our audience that we have a fully adapted plan surrounding Covid-19 and restrictions. We will make sure that we are still delivering sessions through different ways as we did in the first lockdown, whether it be through equipment drop offs, remote sessions or socially distanced activities. Please keep an eye on all of our social media for this as we will be constantly updating and adapting as government restrictions continue. Our main priority is the safety, mental health and wellness of all of our participants, as well as that of our sports coaches and team in the office who are all fully vaccinated and regularly lateral flow testing. As always, if you keep an eye on all of our online presence, you will always be the first to know what is happening with us. We can't wait to see you all!