Research Participants Still Needed
Last week while I was at the Halberg Games I looked around at all the young athletes participating and realised that the vast majority of them were unlikely to participate in sport outside of that delivered by their local regional disability sport organisations, such as dsport.
This is why I am doing my research, to try and make a better sport and active recreation future for our young people with impairments.
But, I still need help. To support my research I need more young people who are willing to tell me their stories about being included in able-bodied sport. I want to hear about those successes so we can share this information with other sports group and really start to make sport more inclusive in New Zealand.
So far I have interviewed 2 young people and their stories have been great. Not only have they shared what they find helpful, they have thought about how to make it better – and guess what, its not that difficult.
You know, we are involved in sport, not rocket science, so we don’t need to think they way the team does at Rocket Lab to make our ideas fly. Well actually, perhaps we do!
Peter and his team are all about “redefining how we access space”
Building on the “kiwi ingenuity” tradition, Rocket Lab has shaken up space travel – they’ve made it simpler, cheaper and easier to do. They are literally sending rockets into space from a grassy penninsula surrounded by sheep – launching satellites that help with communications, navigation, science and research, and imaging and surveying.
Rocket Lab was one man’s dream and he made it happen. Why can’t we in sport make lots of peoples dreams happen? There’s definitely more of us to help get disability sport inclusion off the ground. So why not help try?
How can you help?
If you are a young person aged 10-14 years with a physical impairment who is part of able-bodied sport, here is your opportunity.
Talk to your parents/caregivers and get them to nominate you.
A recruitment questionnaire has been designed to help me find 4 or 5 young people to be part of this research, but also help build a know base on young New Zealanders with physical impairments.
If you have any questions regarding my research, please feel free to contact me cm289@students.waikato.ac.nz.
We’re not on the sideline, we are in the team 