Parafed Bay of Plenty have teamed up with Parafed Waikato to establish a new executive officer position. These organisations have led the way nationally to establish a partnership that will promote a co-ordinated, more professional delivery of strategic outcomes and ultimately more and better opportunities for our region's physically disabled athletes.
Capable structures will give us the capacity to grow fruit on a vast array of opportunities that are becoming available. National organisations such as Equestrian Sports NZ, Triathlon NZ, Sailing NZ and Basketball NZ - just some of the great examples - have created inclusion models within their sports to cater for our sector.
We will work with these types of organisations to help develop their sport locally and ensure everyone's needs are catered for.
We will also continue to work on sports that can't be immersed effectively into mainstream sports. There are many gaps to plug. It is quite exciting to think of the possibilities and what the future holds for physically disabled athletes in the Bay of Plenty and New Zealand.
The snowball has been gathering momentum over the past three years following great support from the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation and Paralympics New Zealand, which have advocated successfully to Sport NZ.