A young Canadian, living in Canada is in his 20`s, comes into the gym, and he has never held hockey stick.
How not included is that? Is it rare? For people with disabilities it is way too common.
Here is what we see:
97% of students with disabilities are never included in activities in school. They are in the building but, not in the game.
69% of employers only hire people who are already employed, or who play a sport for someone they know.
It’s a lot tougher if you don’t get a chance to overcome their assumptions.
If you have never had a job, how is an employer supposed to know what you can do.
Yet the employers that hire persons with disabilities are finding unexpected benefits.
A Tim Hortons franchisee in Ontario found that his staff turnover dropped 30% because other staff also found it a more accepting work environment.
As a job coach, I know that many people at employment agencies couldn’t help clients who were deemed to be not employment ready.
In Victoria there is no development workshop to assess and teach functional skills to transition to the regular workplace.
Until now.
Objectives of Play Beyond Expectations
The focus of this program is building employment and life skills through developing the foundation skills to play sports in the community. We help them succeed.
This program will help you prove what you can do and you have fun learning as well.
The success in the gym leads to trying more things and discovering what each individual can do.
That success also helps encourage them to try to improve in other areas like speech and social skills.
Existing solution
At Play Beyond Expectations has been going officially since January 2017.
- This is a flexible program for young adults with disabilities held twice a week in the gym at the Esquimalt recreation Centre. If you have never been employed, this program can help you. If you have never learned any sport or want to improve your skills, this program is for you.
- The participants who have been coming regularly, keep coming because they are having fun and seeing progress in themselves every session. Note: their parents/caregivers are also having fun, as well as being surprised by the progress of their own child/client.
There is a drop-in fee but if you have a Recreation pass it is free
The pilot project is for people who are age 17-29, able to stand, with some disability such as cerebral palsy, mild developmental delay, or autism.
Comments from a parent
It provides a unique opportunity to learn the skills in a safe and intelligently structured program that is tailored to each individual’s ability and interest.
What was it like before you started coming to Play Beyond Expectations? When M started he was afraid of the ball and had no idea how to catch it. He was afraid to go in the room, had no concept of games, or how to hold a stick, or shoot a ball. We started at ground zero.
Another caregiver said that she had tried to get her client into different community programs but they wouldn’t take him.
