A WEST Lindsey project will help people with disabilities experience a future Paralympic sport thanks to a £10,000 Awards for All grant.
The project is one of three in West Lindsey and 42 in the East Midlands sharing grants worth £323,531 in the latest round of awards announced today.
West Lindsey Inclusive Sports will use the £10,000 grant to set up new age kurling groups through
out the area, with a view to it becoming a new demonstration sport in the 2012 Paralympics. The variation on traditional ice curling can be played on any smooth flooring and features magnetic boards and targets, and can be enjoyed by people of all ages and all physical and mental abilities. The sports enterprise will also establish 'new age bowls' groups at the same time and will launch a biannual district tournament in which the new clubs will come together and compete against one another.
"We want to use sport as a vehicle to help community cohesion and to break down barriers between people with disabilities and without," said Ian Brown, treasurer and equality and diversity officer for the Lincolnshire Sports Partnership.
"Lincolnshire in general is lacking in opportunities to take part in sports that can include everyone and we're determined to go on helping that situation improve. Inevitably, the Paralympics have had a massive impact on people's eagerness to take part in inclusive sports so this is the perfect time to launch the scheme."
He added: "The district league will see people from all walks of life – regardless of age, gender and ability - take part and compete against one another in a spirit of friendly competition. The first step is to use part of the funding to buy the necessary equipment including the new age kurling stones and targets and foam bowls, which will help us integrate older generations too. Having piloted these sports at the Lincolnshire County Show this year, we know this will be a huge success and that we can bring lots of people from the region together. Later on we will expand the scheme even further and make it countywide," he added.
Awards for All is the small grants scheme administered by the Big Lottery Fund on behalf of Lottery good cause funders, Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England. The scheme makes awards of between £300 and £10,000 to grass-roots community groups and voluntary organisations.
Mick McGrath, Big Lottery Fund head of region in the East Midlands, said on behalf of the Awards for All funders: "District organisations such as West Lindsey Inclusive Sports are united in ensuring that those with a disability of some kind are just as able to take part in community events and sporting pursuits as everybody else, which is wonderful. Overall this month 42 terrific groups were awarded well over £300,000 of Lottery funding."
