Disability Snowsport are UK are aiming to raise £4,000 through this Crowdfunder campaign to help fund #OurClub at our adaptive Snowsport School in Tamworth.

Disability Snowsport UK helps disabled people access Snowsports to get fit, learn new skills, and have fun!   

At our Snowsport School in Tamworth, we run a regular after-school group for disabled young people and their families, called #OurClub.

The idea behind the club is to offer social, coached sessions for children, with or without disabilities, to participate in alongside their friends or siblings. 

The word ‘inclusive’ is often used but less often delivered. 

Typically, groups and clubs are aimed at either those ‘with disabilities’ or those ‘without’ but #OurClub aims to provide opportunities for children to participate in activities together. 

By offering an appropriate level of support within the sessions, we can assist every person to achieve, enabling them to feel an equal and valued part of the group #OurClub.

Young people who attend the sessions have a range of physical and learning disabilities as well as neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, ADHD and sensory processing disorder. Despite the additional challenges some people face, at #OurClub, everyone has the chance to feel and share the freedom, joy and benefits of snowsports in their own unique way.

The sessions run twice monthly and at each session, DSUK instructors and volunteers run two groups, supporting the young people and their families to learn and enjoy the slopes together. 

Snowsports are great for enabling families with disabled children to enjoy an activity together, sharing the thrill, exhilaration and social benefits. Taking part can be life-changing for many by providing disabled children and their families positive experiences, the benefits of which can be transferred into everyday life. 

Why are we crowdfunding?

Our aim is to make adaptive skiing and snowboarding available in an affordable way to people with a range of disabilities. 

However, we need to put in the resources to make this possible, such as specialist adaptive equipment and qualified instructors.   Alongside this, the #OurClub sessions are small group sessions so that we can dedicate the necessary time and accommodate the specific needs of our disabled learners.

How we’ll spend the money raised

For each session we run, we have to pay for our specially trained instructors (qualified through BASI - British Association of Snowsport Instructors), the slope fees at Snow Dome Tamworth, as well as our charity's costs such as insurance and equipment maintenance. After charging a small fee to participants,  each three-hour session costs DSUK around £344. If we hit the £4,000 target (which would include £2,000 +ExtraFunding), this will help us run 12 #OurClub sessions this year! 

Community impact

The impact of these lessons on the disabled young people and their families is amazing and is clearly expressed through the feedback we get.   Not only do the lessons give learners the chance to learn a new skill, they feel exhilaration, joy, a sense of freedom, belonging to a community and a feeling of being equal amongst families and friends.  When we asked why people enjoy #OurClub, we got the following replies:

"Being part of a group and accepted for himself"

"Making new friends!"

"Jumps and freestyle!"

“He absolutely loved the #OurClub knowing he was part of a club with people who have the same conditions/disabilities and to be able to be himself with absolutely no looks or judgement from others which has been so liberating for him and knowing no masking had do be done.  He didn't stop talking about how much he enjoyed his 1st club visit and how much he wants to go back.”

“It’s been an amazing experience, that he’s never been offered before!”

“Skiing with her brother and seeing the other children in #OurClub ski at the same time as her & interacting with them”

“The fun on the slopes with fab instructors and meeting the others in the group”

“Increasing independence, being able to participate in an activity with peers without the need for 24hr PA / 1-1 support. Warwick can be a normal 15 year old enjoying a sport whilst having fun with his peers.”

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'Start Fundraising' button at the top of our page to let us know. When you click on this, you'll have the option of 'Create Your Fundraiser' or simply 'Donate'. If you want to set up own Fundraiser page it only takes a few minutes and you won’t need to add any bank details. 

+EXTRA FUNDING!

As mentioned above, there is an opportunity for us to get £2,000 +Extra Funding and to unlock this we need to raise £2,000 through our supporters. So please donate money or rewards to help us towards this and anything you donate could be worth 50% more if we hit that target!!