Breaking the Barrier
WATCH THE BREAKING THE BARRIER 2008 VIDEO BELOW
">
Special Needs Children Catch the Wave
Breaking the Barrier 2008 doubled in size and success. This years' 'surfari' for special needs children has once again demonstrated the enormous need for outdoor, healthy sporting activities in which children with special needs can take part.
This past September, children from all over Devon and as far as Norfolk and Essex travelled with their families just to have a taste of surfing with specialist instructors in the warmer waters off Bigbury-on-Sea. Participant numbers doubled this year to a staggering 142, with another 48 hopefuls waiting in the wings. Although not all children were successful at standing on a board and riding solo on an incoming wave, all but 2 had a go and were visibly and audibly disgruntled when their lessons came to an end.
The aims of Breaking the Barrier are twofold: to introduce children oftentimes excluded from social and sporting opportunities, to an activity that they might not only enjoy on an on-going basis, but may indeed excel at, boosting their confidence and self-esteem in the process. For a child with autism or one who suffers from a learning disability, this is no small matter, and could prove to be their very first success story in life.
The second objective of Breaking the Barrier is to offer a fun-filled, carefree family day out, as rare as hen-s teeth for those with special needs children. To enhance the fun day out theme this year, Lifeworks included a sand castle competition run by patron, The Duke of Somerset, followed by an on-the-beach gymnastics workshop and gymnastics display by members of the Kingsbridge Gymnastics Club.
Lifeworks is dedicated to enabling children with special needs to become active and valuable members of their communities, and to providing them with the educational and recreational opportunities that children should have as a natural part of their childhood and adolescence. The Lifeworks mission is to build confidence, provide life skills, further independent living, and promote a fluid transition into adulthood. Where stepping stones towards a self-sustainable future do not exist, Lifeworks endeavours to create them. Where the means to develop skills towards independence are unavailable, Lifeworks forges new pathways.
Breaking the Barrier is just one project in which Lifeworks aims to benefit children with special needs. The far-reaching and diverse demographics of the children who participated this year demonstrate the inadequate and/or out of reach recreational and family options available to this frequently excluded group. They also point us in a direction where the charity may be able to help. Discussions are now underway to launch similar events in 3 other counties come 2009, and to encourage on-going relationships between surfing communities and special needs groups across the country. Lifeworks also hopes to attract sponsorship from local and regional organisations in order to make Breaking the Barrier events financially sustainable long into the future.
For now, the charity sends heart-felt thanks to all participants and their families, and especially to Discovery Surf School, TriOcean Products, Surf Relief UK, Big Blue and Surf GSD Surf Schools, Kingsbridge Gymnastics Club, Bantham Surf Life Saving Club, and 39 invaluable volunteers, all of whom combined to break barriers and create a spectacular and successful day out!
For more information on how you might participate, fundraise, or volunteer for Breaking the Barrier, please contact the event coordinator: Lis Leader on 01803 840744 or by email at lisleader@lifeworks-uk.org.
