Ask any disability service provider about recognising the achievements of people with disability. They will tell you that any chance they get they let everyone know the great work or success an individual or group has had. Service providers like mine have worked hard to foster inclusion and ensure access and equity issues are minimal.

On July 2 my service held its annual Ray White Illawarra Awards Evening, where over 300 people come together to recognise achievements of our Sport & Recreation Services program participants.

The night runs just the same as any mainstream sporting club's presentation night, with trophies awarded to the best and fairest participants from each sport and recreational program. Major awards are also presented to participants who excel personally including the most helpful, best teamwork, most respectful and most improved. It is also a great night to recognise the assistance of our supporters and sponsors.

Participants get to dress up in formal wear for the evening and are treated to a sit down meal and entertainment including a live band. It’s a great night out for families and carers to spend time with friends and other participants.

The night went well and was well received by all in attendance. It was great to see so many participants and families enjoy a night out, and great to see the participants who have achieved so much in the last 12 months get recognised for their efforts.

This month I'd like to introduce you to the service I work in and specifically the roles of my staff. Sport & Recreation Services of The Disability Trust is a unique service that specifically offers a number of sport and recreational opportunities for all ages and abilities. The service commenced in 1993 and has expanded to offer a wide variety of programs to participants who access our service.

There are two Managers of the service. Along with me, Michael Norris is the Manager of our after school sporting programs and popular Fitness 4 All business. Michael has worked with The Disability Trust for 9 years and oversees a range of sporting programs across a number of regions that are held after school and on weekends. I manage the majority of our school programs including After School and Vacation Care, and our BlueScope Steel Sports Ready program offering sporting activities for school support units in the Illawarra region of NSW.

Our other team members include the following staff:

Annette Pilon is our Coordinator of After School & Vacation Care, for children 12 to 18 years. Annette has worked in the disability sector for the past 2 years, starting as a project officer before moving into this role last year. She says the best part of her job is that “through our programs our clients are able to participate in a wider variety of community activities they would not normally get a chance to participate in”.

Jenny Murphy is our Project Officer of After School & Vacation Care. She is responsible for the programming and resourcing of our After School and Vacation Care programs in the Illawarra region of NSW. Jenny has worked in the disability sector for the past 4 years, and has been in this role for the past year. Jenny says the best part of her role is seeing the participants interacting with each other, trying new things and enjoying what is programmed for them, such as sensory rooms, music sessions, art and craft programs, visits to animal parks and meeting sports stars.

Amy Carroll is one of our Sport and Recreation Officers and also is a Fitness 4 All Trainer. Her main role is helping to organise sporting programs and camps for people with a disability. She also provides exercise for people with an intellectual disability at group homes and also in a mainstream setting through Fitness 4 All. Amy has an Exercise Physiology background and she has worked for the past 3 years in the sector, starting her career with Sport & Recreation Services. Amy says the best part of her role is helping families and individuals accomplish things that they have otherwise been told they would not. “Seeing them smile when they have overcome barriers and participated in something they have always wanted to is the best part of my job”.

Susan Booth is our Sport & Recreation Officer for the Shoalhaven region of NSW. Susan also develops and resources our weekly programs and after school and vacation care. Although new to this role, Susan has been in the disability sector for 8 years. Susan says the best part of her role is seeing clients achieve and extend their potential through the programs we offer.

Megan Murphy is our BlueScope Steel Sports Ready Teacher, who conducts weekly sporting classes in school support units across the Illawarra. Megan is new to this role, and has worked in the disability sector for the past year. She says the best part of her role is that she gets to give kids with disability the opportunity to try new sports, and enjoys seeing the smiles on their faces when they do something they didn’t think they could do. “I love it how everyone has so much fun, even the teachers and aides at each school. The kids always want to try new games and sports and are really enthusiastic”.

A new year and already time is flying. We have already done so much this year in our program at The Disability Trust and we are only a few months in.

My service has been conducting registration days over the past few weeks, with over 150 current and new participants looking to access a range of sporting, recreational and respite opportunities in 2011.

To ensure our service meets the needs of every participant my team and I meet with each person, and their family, to determine their needs and goals for the programs they’re involved in. Goals can be skill based, such as improving control when bouncing the ball in our basketball program, or they can be for the development of social and life skills.

Our programming reflects what the participants want, ensuring a client-centred approach to service delivery and a meaningful program.

An achievement to note, and as an example of the success of the goal setting process, has been the development of our soccer team, White Knights F.C (take a look at some photos of the team below). The team has been training for the past 2 years and is currently travelling to state and national championships across the country.

In the past few years this same team had been comprehensively beaten by other state rivals at most tournaments and even playing in these competitions was a new experience for the players and coaches.

Through training and working on the individual goal setting process, the team narrowly lost the final of the State Championships in Sydney towards the end of 2010 but nevertheless was keen to play in the Nationals competition in Canberra in January this year - and they won! They played the final at the Australian Institute of Sport and beat the ACT team 6-1.

One of our program team members, Amy, was at the final and she told us how fantastic it was to see the team member’s faces as they pulled off an undefeated victory. The whole team was proud of their teamwork, skills and sportsmanship.

The win also showed that setting and working towards small and individual goals can help to achieve bigger and greater outcomes.

At the service I work in, we’re ultimately striving to provide as many opportunities as possible when it comes to sport and recreation for people with a disability. We’re always looking to support our participants in any way possible to help create an inclusive world.

I’d like to tell you about a young man whose love of sport has led him to volunteer his time with our service. Since leaving school a few years ago Brenton (pictured below) has assisted my staff and I two days a week, to teach a variety of sporting skills and drills to primary aged school students with a disability, in our BlueScope Steel Sports Ready Program. He is able to work hands on as a sports facilitator, which is something he has wanted to do for a long time.

Brenton is able to learn meaningful and relevant workplace skills through involvement in something he is passionate about – sport.

Brenton has down syndrome and dyspraxia, however this has not stopped him following his passions and he participates regularly in rugby league, basketball and soccer at state level.

I am extremely proud to have seen him build and improve his confidence and skills through working with our program. Not only have his skills increased, but his involvement has also boosted the skills of both myself and the staff he works with. We are learning new ways to communicate with Brenton, and his patience is always tested as we ask him to spell out what he is trying to say through signing.

Brenton’s help with the program is greatly valued, and I encourage other service providers to do the same in whatever way they can. As I am writing this, Brenton has just returned from a day out at the program. I ask him what he thinks the best part of volunteering with us is and he replies that it is "just being a part of the team".

Sport and recreational activities are a large part of Australian society, whether it is participating in, volunteering to help with, or just watching it live or on television. This is no different within the disability community and inclusion in sport or recreational activities should be encouraged.

The Disability Trust’s Sport & Recreation Services is a unique service, where we offer a number of different sport and recreational opportunities to people with disability. We cater for all abilities and offer programs for people from a grassroots level, through to elite competition. We are about giving sport and recreation a go, no matter who you are.

As a Manager of the service, I am regularly recruiting staff to conduct our weekly programs. During every recruiting period I find that people who apply for our positions are usually extremely skilled in sport-specific skills, with little or no disability support experience. Sometimes they can be  the complete opposite; highly experienced in working with people with a disability but with limited coaching or sporting experience. Nearly all of our staff (including myself) started with our service in either of these ways.

It is very easy to improve in either sport specific or disability specific training relating to our service. I find the best way to achieve this is to be hands-on. Practical experience is an excellent way to learn new skills.

People should not be discouraged if they are interested in working in any area of the disability sector. I personally find that working with people with disability, in a sport or recreational setting, takes initiative, confidence, patience and a willingness to try new things. I’m sure it is similar in other areas of the sector too, such as day programs and respite services.

If I had a dollar for the amount of times I've been told by other people “they won’t be able to that”, about our participants, I would be a rich man. But by giving something a go, the sense of achievement our participants get, and you get, when they have accomplished a task for the first time or made an improvement, is well worth it.

Not only are there physical benefits for the participants involved, but the social and emotional benefits are immeasurable. I encourage everyone to include people with disability in sport and recreational activities, not only through participating or working for a service like ours, but in all services and organisations throughout the disability sector.