The rocky road looks to be smoothing and the framework is being built.
Parafed Bay of Plenty - you may not have heard of this organisation yet - let me explain. The movement started in 1968 as a competitive outlet for those with significant permanent physical or sensory disability caused by injury, disease or birth abnormality. It was very successful under different guises and exponentially for this community in respect to the well known benefits of sport.
In the mid-late 90s as cogs started to squeak for a lot of volunteer sporting organisations so too our sector grappled for survival. The then national body Parafed NZ rebranded Paralympics New Zealand, focusing on elites and cut ties with regional bodies and grass roots, effectively leaving the fish with no head.
You can imagine the fragmentation to follow, then frustration and misinformation. This led to the disintegration with only a few strong main centres holding on to a few sports and members.
Boom bang came a revitalisation period 2008-2011 where significant input from former Sparc directed by PNZ and supported by our good ole local Regional Sports Trusts.