Disability Sports

Men playing wheelchair basketball Coaches encouraging disabled athelte to play botcha Child playing table cricket at disability sports event

Southwark is a leading provider of sporting opportunities for people with a disability. The borough offers opportunities to join clubs or compete in many sports at varying levels. Specific sessions are available for football, gymnastics, swimming, athletics, trampolineing, tennis and sailing. These sessions are run by coaches trained to coach disabled athletes. Southwark also organises London's largest pan-disability athletics and swimming championships, with more than 300 competitors at both events.

View our list of disability sports clubs in Southwark (pdf 73kb).
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Inclusive and Active

'Inclusive and Active' is a joint initiative between the London Sports Forum for Disabled People, Sport England London Region and the Greater London Authority. It was officially launched by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, on September 11 2007. Inclusive and Active is a clear and concise action plan for how we can successfully increase the opportunities available for disabled Londoners to participate in sport and physical activity.

On January 29 2008 Southwark Council became one of the first London boroughs to sign up to this far reaching plan. It will help take disability sport in Southwark from being something that is worked on by passionate individuals, to a position were it is embedded in the council's policies and strategies.

Disability sport has its best ever four year opportunity before the 2012 Olympic and Para-Olympic Games, and the funding supplied by this new initiative will allow Southwark to continue to be seen as a model of best practice, with regards to disability sport, in London.

View more information about the 'Inclusive and Active' initiative (pdf 520kb).
To view the pdf document listed above you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Coach ability programme

Disabled athlete playing botcha Southwark is also about to start work with the London Sports Forum's coach ability programme. We will be working with people with a disability, to achieve both level one and level two coaching awards in their sport.

These individuals will then be linked into local clubs, the Southwark Community Games and other community sports programs. Over the coming 12 months, there will also be a drive to recruit, train and employ these coaches as part of the assistant sports coaching team, to deliver specific sessions within the sports clubs working specifically with young people and adults with a disability.

View the Coach ability programme (pdf 83kb).
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If you fit the criteria listed and are interested in becoming a qualified sports coach, please get in touch with Glyn Newberry using the contact details below.

Applicants to the project must

Define themselves as a disabled person
Be aged 16 or over
Live, work or study in London
Be unemployed or on a short term contract (there is some flexibility with this)
Not qualified above NVQ level one or GCSE level (there is some flexibility with this)

Contact us

Glyn Newberry
Community sport team
Tel: 020 7525 1105
sports@southwark.gov.uk
Chatelaine House
186 Walworth Road
London
SE17 1JJ