Summer of Sport: how our adult services got active to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympics Games
Published on 15 September 2021
This summer, we’ve been supporting autistic adults in our services to get involved in the fun of the XXXII Olympic and Paralympics Games. Alongside our staff, they took part in a variety of sport related activities throughout the games (23 July - 5 September), like relay racing, trying different cuisines of competing countries and other traditional PE games.
This was part of our adult services’ Summer of Sport initiative, which aimed to create more opportunities for the autistic people we support across the UK to be active and develop their life skills – tailored to their interests and support needs. Well done to everyone who got involved!
We created the Summer of Sport initiative in response to feedback from the families who wanted more opportunities for their loved ones to be active. This is proven to benefit mood, mental health and wellbeing. It built on the success of our Spring Forward walking challenge that saw the people we support mark World Autism Awareness Week by collectively walking 26,000 miles - more than Earth’s total circumference.
Autistic people who took part embraced the Summer of Sport spirit by putting on opening and closing ceremonies, exploring the cuisine of different countries competing in the games, and designed their own team flags. Each of our service shaped and built their activities around the people they support and their individual interests and support plan.
At the National Autistic Society, we support autistic adults in a range of ways, including 24-hour care in our own homes and extra help for people in their own or our homes. Our residential and supported living services are a place where autistic people can learn new skills, develop their interests and try new experiences. People who come to our day centres can choose from a range of opportunities, all of which are designed to help them develop their life skills, make decisions and gain confidence to become more independent.
Laura Baggus, Manager of our St Mark’s Centre, said: “We held an event at our local rugby club and were so pleased with how it turned out. We asked the people we support to tell us what activities they wanted to take part in to ensure everyone was involved in the planning and preparation.
“Our Summer of Sport fun-day allowed us to bring the people we support together for the first time since the pandemic began. Hula hooping and rugby were the most popular activities and everyone had a great time. We can’t wait to do it again.”
Caroline Stevens, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society, said: “The wellbeing of the people we support is our top priority, so when their families of the told us they wanted more opportunities for their loved ones to be active during the lockdown, my brilliant colleagues came up with Spring Forward.
“Then they created the Summer of Sport initiative, which was a great way for the people we support to get involved with the Olympics and Paralympics and try new sports and activities. Each of our services did things a little differently and built their activities around each individual, their interests and support plan.
“Well done to everyone who took part. I really enjoyed seeing the different sporting activities you took part in.”