Sporting chance to inspire young people

The following article is taken from March 2022 issue of nasen Connect. nasen Connect is nasen’s bimonthly membership magazine which is packed full of informative articles which offer advice, analysis and opinions on the current topics and future trends impacting the sector. An e-copy of our magazine is included in our membership. Become a member for free today.

Vicci Wells from the Youth Sport Trust examines how the Winter Paralympics, and a new, nationwide initiative, can engage more young people in sport.

This month saw the Winter Paralympics take place, with athletes competing in 78 different events across six sports in two disciplines; snow sports and ice sports. Experiencing the performance of worldleading Para-athletes can directly and positively impact on young people’s motivations towards their own participation in PE and school sport. Indeed, inspiration is often cited as the reason why national sporting achievement and major sporting events are so important. Connected to this, and the upcoming ‘summer of sport’, which sees the city of Birmingham host the 2022 Commonwealth Games, a new Department for Education funded initiative, ‘Inclusion 2024’, will build upon the ways that inspirational sporting events help to engage pupils through inclusive sport programmes and festivals reaching every county in England.

Our charity, the Youth Sport Trust, is delighted to be able to work alongside nasen as part of a consortium of organisations to support thousands of schools to improve PE and school sport for young people with SEND. Inclusion 2024 will aim to improve provision of inclusive PE for 150,000 young people through training, advice, and guidance to 5,000 schools. The Youth Sport Trust’s Chief Executive, Ali Oliver MBE, believes this is fundamental.

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