Sport Hawke's Bay - Inclusive Sport

In 2020 Sport Hawke’s Bay undertook a Community Information Gathering Project to better understand the needs, barriers and opportunities as identified by disabled people, whānau, disability organisations, and local sport and recreation providers regarding inclusion in Play, Active Recreation and Sport. Key action areas highlighted through this Project were: Increasing accessibility of the places and spaces to be active, creating more opportunities for disabled people to be active, improving the communication of opportunities, increasing the knowledge and confidence of local providers, ensuring disabled people’s voices are heard, and improving sector connectivity and collaboration.

In response to these action areas, Sport Hawke’s Bay established a Regional Advisory Group in June 2021 to develop a strategy to address and action these key community insights. Utilising these insights, whilst aligning to shared outcomes within the Napier Disability Strategy, Sport New Zealand Disability Plan and the New Zealand Disability Strategy, the Advisory Group developed a set of key strategic priorities which were shared with the disabled people, whānau, disability organisations, and local sport and recreation providers for online consultation. With 70+ online submissions, the strategic priorities were amended in line with the feedback received, and the updated draft was re-shared with an additional 50 members of our community at our 2021 Disability Forum for final consultation.

Sport Hawke’s Bay is now pleased to officially launch and share the regional strategic Journey with you all. The Journey sets out the key outcomes and commitments over the next 3 years and will be reviewed annually during this time alongside our community to develop specific, yearly commitments.

The Advisory Group driving this strategy is made of up representatives from the following organisations across the region: Hastings District Council, Napier City Council, Central Hawke’s Bay District Council, Blind Low Vision NZ, Kāpō Māori Aotearoa, Halberg Foundation, Special Olympics NZ, Central Football, Kowhai School, Fairhaven School, Minitrsy of Education, Ministry of Health and importantly includes Special Olympic and Paralympic athlete representatives, and members with a lived experience of disability.