Welcome to the latest edition of the Get Yourself Active newsletter, from Disability Rights UK. This is our round up of what the Get Yourself Active team and our partners have been up to during the month of April, and what to look forward to in May.
Along with some opportunities, news and insight that we hope will be of interest.
You’ll hear more from us next month!
New Website
After months of hard work with our partners at Clear Honest Design, we’re really pleased to be launching our new website. Together with Clear Honest Design, we’ve been working to make the new website more accessible, easier to navigate and more rewarding for everyone we work with.
Speaking about the website Lydia Bone, Programme Manager at Get Yourself Active said:
“We’re so pleased to be launching the new and updated Get Yourself Active website. The new website better reflects the work we do now with our various stakeholder groups and means we can connect with our audience in a more efficient way.
We hope this means we can reach and connect with more people and organisations as part of our work and ultimately have more of an impact around improving physical activity opportunities for Disabled people”
When you visit the new site, you’ll find a lot has changed, and we hope you’ll agree with us that these are positive steps forward! If you would like guidance before your first visit, there is a video tutorial available.
We’ve designed the website to show you specific content depending on in what capacity you are visiting us. We know that sometimes you might be visiting us as an individual or come to us as part of your work. There is a new navigation bar to help you quickly find the right content.
We have also updated where you’ll find our resources on the new website.
We’ve now split the website into:
- Guides – these are our resources to help you with specific topics or issues
- Stories – these are individuals/organisations’ stories about getting active and what it means to them
- Resources – this is where you’ll find all of our research, toolkits, webinars and videos
- Updates – where you’ll find the latest news from the team and across the sector
Please do reach out to us via our email address GYAInfo@disabilityrightsuk.
Your Stories in 2022
Every month we Get Yourself Active asks Disabled people to share their experiences of getting active in a way that’s right for them.
We love using our stories page as a way not just to highlight the personal stories and experiences of our community but also as a place for a diverse range of voices to offer their opinions, thoughts and news with all of you.
We wanted to highlight some of the fantastic stories we’ve had the pleasure of hosting over the last few months:
- Programme Manager Anna Denham discussed what she saw and learned on her visit to Wheels for Wellbeing in South London.
- Danny Lloyd, a member of the Get Yourself Active sounding board, explains how co-production has had a positive on him, his work and what he will do in the future.
- Emily from Sense in Rotherham discussed how she and her team have used the Get Yourself Active Social Care Activity pack to support Disabled people to get active.
We have plenty more exciting stories to come, so please keep visiting the stories page. We hope that sharing your story helps other Disabled people feel confident and empowered.
Social care training proves big success
We know that the social care workforce are essential and trusted messengers to those who they support and ultimately, if they understand more about the importance of physical activity and what is on offer then they will be better placed to support Disabled people to lead a more active life. As part of our work on the Get Yourself Active programme, we have been working to support the sector to feel more confident and knowledgeable around supporting Disabled people to be more active.
Last year we launched our Social Care Activity Pack, including guidance and resources for the social care sector. Over the last couple of months we have also been working in partnership with Spectrum Centre for Independent Living to pilot training to different organisations within the sector. The training included learning about why physical activity is important, how to support Disabled people to participate in more sport and physical activity, how to have conversations and make plans/goals to get active as well as finding opportunities to be active.
We are currently evaluating the training and plan to roll this out more widely later in the year, as well as creating more resources for the sector. The training has been well received by participants and we’re excited to see where this project takes us next.
Active At Home
Don’t forget the Active@Home section of our website is available for anyone who would like to get active at home in a way that’s right for them.
We have a range of accessible activities on there and are still adding to it. We have recently uploaded three new exercise to music dance videos from DanceAbility, ranging from low level to high level workouts. These videos include audio description which was funded by the Together Fund.
We want this page to always work for you. If there’s a resource you’d like to see more of – or you have a video of your own you think would be of interest to others in the community, please reach out to the team.
