Nissan and Sported partnership expands disability sports opportunities in Sunderland and Tyne and Wear

The third year of the partnership between Sported and Nissan will see five young disabled people from the Sunderland and Tyne and Wear area supported on a leadership journey.

Sported is a national charity who work with partners across the UK to support groups to have an impact for the young people in their community through sport.

Sported has helped the groups to develop their confidence and knowledge around disability inclusion in their activities, delivering training, £12,000 in grants, expert support, and 1-2-1 consultations with Sported’s Disability Lead, Gemma Lumsdaine.

Speaking on the future direction of the programme, Lumsdaine said: “It is very important for Sported to champion activity for disabled people because we understand the benefits and the advantages that taking part in sport could have, and we are also aware of the challenges that this community have so we want to be able to make a difference and reduce those barriers.

“Key elements of the project is around supporting the young people who were from the groups in the previous years to get into leadership positions.

The recent International Day of Disabled People has the theme of ‘amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future’, something that Lumsdaine sees the Nissan Possibilities Project’s next stage as having at its centre.

“Developing leadership is essential, particularly for young disabled people. Young people are the future of sport, and I think particularly for representation it’s really important for people when they go to participate in sport that they have somebody who they can see is like them who has that mutual understanding, and at the moment we don’t have that representation.

“The theme around amplifying leadership and to create an inclusive future fits perfectly with our programme because I think that’s where we see it going.

“We want the leaders of the future to be representative of the communities and obviously for disabled people to have more opportunities to be within leadership to have their voices heard.”

During the second year of the programme, Sported and Nissan directly supported 950 young people, helped 30 young disabled people to be more active, created a brand new weekly session in Sunderland which has seen 12 young people to be active for the first time, and delivered 24 disability awareness sessions or consultations.