Let's Play Program--Helping Kids with Disabilities Become Physically Active in the Community
This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Let's Play Program--Helping Kids with Disabilities Become Active.
Let’s Play is a province-wide program operated by BCWBS to assist kids 0-8 with mobility limitations to become physically active early in life.
Sobre ti
Sobre ti
Sobre tu organización
Nombre de la organización
BC Wheelchair Basketball Society
Sitio web de la organización
País de la organización
Canadá, BC, Vancouver
Country where this solution is creating social impact
Canadá, BC, Vancouver
Region in BC where your solution creates social impact
Vancouver, Coast and Mountains, Vancouver Island, Thompson Okanagan, Northern British Columbia, Cariboo Chilcotin Coast, Kootenay Rockies, Columbia Basin.
Tu organización es
OSC/ONG
¿Cuánto tiempo ha estado operando la organización?
Más de 5 años
La información que brindes aquí será usada para llenar las partes de tu perfil que hayan sido dejadas en blanco, como intereses, organización, y sitio web. Ninguna información de contacto será hecha pública. Por favor desmarca esta casilla si no deseas que esto suceda..
Innovación
Selecciona la fase que describa mejor el momento en el que se encuentra tu emprendimiento
Establecida (pasó las etapas anteriores y ha demostrado éxito)
¿Cuánto tiempo se lleva poniendo en práctica tu iniciativa?
Operando entre 1-5 años
The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging
Let’s Play (www.letsplaybc.ca) is a province-wide program which helps kids 0-8 with mobility limitations to become physically active early in life. While everyone understands the longterm health and social benefits of getting kids involved in physical activity from a very early age, it is generally taken for granted that all kids have opportunities to play with other kids and take part in physical education activities and organized sports. But the truth is that young children with disabilities are far too often faced with inaccessible playgrounds, teachers lacking the resources to offer inclusive activities, and needless exclusion from competitive sports. The program is now active in Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, the Lower Mainland, Powell River, and Victoria.
La solución: ¿Cuál es tu solución? Sé específico.
The Let’s Play program helps to give these kids the ability to confidently participate in play, sport, and physical education with their peers. It provides kids with specifically designed wheelchairs, equipment and training for facilitators, and maintains a comprehensive website which provides resources for building knowledge, skills and abilities. The sport wheelchairs allow kids with and without disabilities the freedom to enjoy fun activities together and raise the bar for awareness and inclusion for them as well as their parents, teachers, and other facilitators. The program has many support tools and resources in addition to the sport equipment and is essential to the well-being of young children with physical disabilities. The children’s and their communities’ ongoing and future success depend on embedding inclusive physical activity into the school system and child development centres, more inclusive recreation programming, and raising awareness of parents and facilitators.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.
Ten schools in the Kamloops School District signed up to take part in the wheelchair program last year. Each school had the chairs for a two-week period before they were moved to the next school. While they had the wheelchairs, all students in the school had access to them during their PE periods. Teachers taught the students a two-week “wheelchair sports” unit. Students had the opportunity to try out a variety of activities and games in the chairs including, but not limited to, basketball, relay races, tag, octopus in the garden, and hockey. Teachers and students were trained
by a district coordinator as to the proper usage of the chairs on their first day with the chairs. This was helpful in familiarizing the students with their safe operation and care. The teachers then accessed the “Activity Guide” provided by Let’s Play for more activities and games that they could teach the students. The wheelchairs were used from 8:30 until 2:30 almost every day. Often they were also used during lunchtime and after school with teacher supervision. The chairs were extremely popular and over 20 schools have signed up for the coming year. This will account for more than 5000 students having access to the chairs in the coming year. The Let's Play wheelchair has some unique advantages. The wheels have camber (are angled outwards) to make turning easier and faster, a fifth wheel in the back to stop from flipping backwards, high pressure tires built for speed, and a sturdy frame for taking on contact. They look cooler, move better and are built for smaller bodies and shorter arms.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.
Let’s Play is currently a unique program filling a substantial void in our health and education system in identifying kids with disabilities and giving them the fundamental knowledge, skills, and abilities to let them participate in play, sport, and physical education with their peers, resulting in lifelong healthy lifestyles. Educators have long indicated that they need support and resources to be able to allow for inclusion in physical activity, but no other program like ours seems to exist, which is another reason for its indispensability.
Esta presentación se trata de
Impacto social
Historia de la fundación: Queremos saber acerca del momento en el que hiciste "¡Ajá!". Comparte la historia de dónde y cuándo el/los fundador(es) vio (vieron) el potencial de esta solución para cambiar el mundo.
The Let’s Play program is the brainchild of the BCWBS and was developed specifically to promote opportunities to engage parents of children with and without disabilities into a dialogue that raises the playing field for inclusion. The sport wheelchair provides a freedom for those with mobility impairments that may have kept them from actively participating in physical activities with their peers in the past. It provides able-bodied children the opportunity to enjoy fun activities and gain a greater awareness of the challenges their friends face. The training and online resource ensure that kids, parents, teachers and others will have tools to effectively deliver safe and fun programs. Ultimately, this will lead to a lifelong love of physical activity and ensure an enduring healthy lifestyle, which is a major facet of BCWBS’s philosophy of supporting the growth of wheelchair basketball in BC by providing quality leadership, programs, and services for all who wish to participate.
Por favor, describe el objetivo de tu iniciativa: un resumen de lo que están tratando de lograr
The goal of Let’s Play is to provide the basic tools for delivering inclusive physical activity programs for kids with disabilities by focusing on 3 key areas: Understanding the Principles, Planning for Inclusion, and Delivering Programs. An emphasis is placed on the basic knowledge and skills and kids need to develop physical literacy. Physical literacy is the development of fundamental knowledge, skills and abilities that permit someone to move confidently and with control, in a wide range of physical activities and sport situations. Physical literacy addresses core abilities like strength, balance, coordination and flexibility; specific sport and movement skills; and the ability to understand and react appropriately to events and work effectively with others to achieve common goals.
¿Cuál ha sido el impacto de la solución hasta la fecha?
We now have over 100 stakeholders throughout the province including schools, child development centres, recreation centres, school districts and disability organizations. Approximately 25 children have directly benefited from receiving a sport wheelchair for their own use. A Let’s Play Date was held in the Lower Mainland which saw 7 Let’s Play kids in attendance with 5 BCWBS Junior Mentors. Three identified Let’s Play kids participated in the BC Wheelchair Sports Junior Sport Camp last year. The online resource has received positive feedback from leaders in the fields of pedagogy and practitioners. Let’s Play Program Northern B.C. was chosen for the City of Prince George’s 2011 Access Award of Merit for its outstanding contribution to increasing and improving accessibility in education. The North Central Local Government Association passed a resolution at the NCLGA Convention to support inclusive physical activity in the school curriculum to the UBCM and the Provincial Government.
Cuál es tu impacto proyectado para los próximos 5 años?
Over the next five years, the program will greatly enhance the level of engagement and communication with currently identified kids and their families, track their participation levels and share their personal stories to promote the program. The sport specific resource information will be expanded with the BC Disability Sport Community to ensure young children and their families are aware of and connected to the “Next Steps” available to continue their pursuit of healthy and active living opportunities. Many more young children with disabilities in BC will be identified through the Let’s Play program model as a marketing and identification tool and helped to pursue healthy and active lives with their peers. More new partnerships to expand the Let’s Play Program in BC will be established.
Las iniciativas ganadoras presentan un plan fuerte de cómo van a alcanzar y realizar un seguimiento del crecimiento. Identifica tus metas a seis meses para el crecimiento de tu impacto
We hope to see demonstrated improvements in KSAs (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) in program participants
Identifica tres grandes tareas que tendrás que completar para llegar a las metas de seis meses.
Tarea 1
1.Track children's participation by asking parents to indicate all forms and levels of physical activity participation
Tarea 2
Have Community and School Programs gather participation statistics as part of their annual program agreements with BCWBS
Tarea 3
Expand our ongoing model to reach many more kids and allow us to provide crucial adult individual support.
¡Ahora piensa en grande! Identifica tu meta de impacto a 12 meses.
Identifica tres grandes tareas que tendrás que completar para llegar a tu meta de impacto a 12 meses
Tarea 1
Review survey responses or personal stories shared by parents and kids to track increased confidence and self-esteem.
Tarea 2
Track increased awareness of sport specific opportunities for individual children in the Next Steps page on the website.
Tarea 3
Create an expanded Let’s Play Program Delivery Model for potential use by other groups and regions.
Sostenibilidad
Cuéntanos sobre tus alianzas.
BCWBS runs the Let’s Play program as a result of a collaborative effort with the Rick Hansen Foundation and the Province of BC (see above for grant amounts). Strong community partnerships are the foundation of the Let’s Play Program. Currently we are working with many partners such as the Kamloops School District, the Powell River Disability Sports Club, the Prince George Titans Wheelchair Basketball Club, the Braefoot Community Foundation in Victoria, and Abbotsford Recreation Centre just to name a few.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?
We are targeting the entire province of BC, and continue to work to see the Let’s Play program implemented in as many communities as possible. Program implementation in some communities (Victoria, Kelowna) is still in its infancy, and in the Lower Mainland we are currently approaching Let’s Play kids and their families on an individual basis to support Let’s Play. Long-term success depend on embedding inclusive physical activity into the school system and child development centres, implementing more inclusive recreation programming, and raising awareness of parents of kids with disabilities.
¿Qué tipo de sistema operativo y factores internos de la organización hacen que tu innovación sea un éxito?
After the program was initially implemented, community stakeholders such as teachers, parents, recreation programmers and healthcare professionals were quick to become engaged and provide feedback and advice. As a result, the age of the children needing assistance was raised to 8 from 6 years, and many more kids have been reached. In addition, the Coordinator as well as all involved staff and volunteers are completely committed to the program and its continued success and expansion. Let’s Play has also received valuable in-kind assistance such as storage space for wheelchairs in some communities.
Por favor, pon en claro las necesidades u ofertas que hayas mencionado anteriormente y/o sugiere categorías de apoyo que no están especificadas en la lista
Let’s Play was begun as an initiative to purchase the necessary equipment for kids with disabilities, but we now need to expand on our model to allow many more kids to be reached. The best way to reach them is to have the means to provide the individual adult support that is crucial to the success of the program. We would be happy to share knowledge and ideas with other organizations.
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