By Zachary Dickson- Parasport Coordinator
Over the past few years, there have been major strides in the growth and availability of parasport opportunities across Nova Scotia. EDIA Funding was launched in January 2022 and has since supported dozens of programs with over $500,000 allocated across every region of the province to start new parasport programs, replace aging adaptive equipment, and support coach development opportunities for parasports. The Parasport Loan Program was then launched in Fall 2022 to give communities the knowledge and equipment needed in order to try out parasport opportunities in new communities that were previously underserved across the province. This initiative has been extremely successful at expanding the number of programs available in rural regions of the province with some examples including wheelchair curling in Sydney, wheelchair basketball in Pictou County, and sledge hockey in Parrsboro, to name a few. These programs also supported the resurgence of parasports that had previously been defunct in Nova Scotia such as boccia and wheelchair rugby.
All of this is to say that in the past few years, a number of programs and supports have been put in place to empower community champions across the province to grow and offer more programs in their communities. But now that there are programs available throughout the province, the supports that communities need are shifting. We now have a solid base of parasport programs available across the province so that there are opportunities for everyone, no matter their ability and no matter their geographic location. Now how do we support our new para-athletes in these programs in gaining more meaningful competition? How do we make sure the people in these communities know that these programs are offered and available? How do we support Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs) in onboarding these new programs? Now that we have programs to send prospective para-athletes to, we need to ensure there is a cohesive awareness and recruitment strategy in each region, and ensure there are competitive pathways for those who strive to one day represent Canada and Nova Scotia at the Paralympics.
To address these new barriers, new and creative solutions and supports will be needed to ensure that the new influx of parasport programs are able to continue to grow and thrive. Recognizing this, and recognizing that we cannot use a “one size fits all” approach to serve everyone’s needs, Sport Nova Scotia started working on the development of a Parasport Strategy as part of our larger EDIA Strategic Plan this past summer to identify the steps forward to support the continued growth of parasport in Nova Scotia. In order to inform the development of this strategy, we’ve been conducting engagement sessions with a large range of stakeholders in an attempt to gain as much insight as possible on the gaps and barriers they are facing. This includes stakeholders such as physios, occupational therapists and recreational therapists in the health care sector, physical education teachers and administrators within our schools, our Provincial Sport Organizations, and also parasport organizations from across Canada. By accessing these groups, we aim to understand what is working for them, lessons learned that can be applied here, what challenges or knowledge gaps exist, and what supports are needed to better support our parasport programs here in NS.
One of the biggest parts of this engagement was the hosting of Parasport Roundtables in each of Nova Scotia’s regions during the fall. These roundtables brought new and existing Community Sport Organizations, Municipal Recreation and other community level stakeholders together to discuss the strengths and challenges they face in their areas. These roundtables were essential in understanding the individual needs of programs across the province. Some significant positives were highlighted, namely the positive impact the aforementioned EDIA Funding and Parasport Loan Program have had at the community level in sustaining existing programs, starting new programs, or improving the quality of existing programs. Of course, we also had the opportunity to hear about the challenges programs are still facing, such as access to facilities, athlete recruitment, awareness of programs with the targeted participants, lack of coaching resources, and a desire for more competitive opportunities for athletes.
With the information gathered through our community engagement, we have been able to gather a solid understanding of the challenges stakeholders are facing at all levels of the parasport system. This has already led to some short-term projects to start addressing new challenges that were identified, such as partnering with researchers at Acadia University to develop a multi-sport Parasport Coaching Workshop, the development of streamlined program advertising resources for each region, and continuing the roundtables on an ongoing basis to support collaboration between programs on recruitment initiatives. These initiatives and more will be worked into the strategy to help guide the ongoing growth and development of Parasport in Nova Scotia with the end goal of increasing access to sport for all Nova Scotians.
If you would like to have your voice heard as part of the Parasport Strategy engagement, please reach out to parasport@sportnovascotia.ca.
