East of Scotland Para Sport Festival 2017

Basketball session at 2016 Parasport Festival

The annual Para Sport Festival is on the horizon for 2017, welcoming young people from across the East of Scotland with a physical or sensory impairment and providing them with an opportunity to try a range of Para Sports, delivered by some of the best clubs and coaches across the country.  This year’s festival is scheduled for Friday 24th March at Forrester / St Augustine’s High School, Edinburgh.

The event, previously named the Paralympic Experience Event, is entering its sixth year since inception prior to the London Paralympic Games in 2012 and comes at a time where Para Sport is fresh in everyone’s mind after a hugely successful games for GB in Rio de Janeiro last year.  It is a fantastic opportunity for primary and secondary aged young people to experience some of the sports where team GB achieved significant success.  The activities selected reflect the strong club structure in the region and will aim to ignite the transition from the event to more regular sporting activity with one or more of the session’s being delivered.

The festival is a partnership event between Scottish Disability Sport, Edinburgh Active Schools, Lothian Disability Sport and Edinburgh Leisure who work together, along with local club coaches, to offer sessions in swimming, athletics, wheelchair basketball and many more to the children and young people from East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, the Scottish Borders and West Lothian.  To find out more, click here and download the entry information pack.

During last year’s event, video footage was captured highlighting the aims and potential impact of the event featuring testimonies from young people, parents, club coaches and professional officers.  We hope this footage will prove a useful tool in providing an accurate insight to the event.

The event will also offer an opportunity for education staff, club coaches and volunteers to enhance their knowledge of disability sport with the delivery of CPD workshop, ‘How to Identify and Include Children and Young People with a Disability in Sport’.   This workshop has proved extremely popular over previous events and will again be delivered by the experienced Richard Brickley, MBE.  To find out more about this opportunity, please click here.

If you would like to register for the event, please complete the entry information and return to the address highlighted.  Alternatively you can complete the online form here.  If you require further information relating to the event, please contact Neal Herbert on 0131 625 4414 or neal.herbert@scottishdisabilitysport.com.