The ‘Making Sense of Mini-Games‘ resource, created by Sense Active, is designed to support people with multiple or complex disabilities to be active at home. The resource includes step by step instructions and activity cards including games that can be enjoyed with little or no equipment, or in any sized space. The resource provides activities that can be enjoyed at home, in the garden or at a local green space either singularly or in groups.

Sense Active aim to reach disabled people and their support networks, particularly those who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and following restrictions.

The recently released ‘Sport England Active Lives Coronavirus Report’ (Oct 2020) shows that disabled people’s activity levels were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and experienced a larger increase in inactivity levels. 56% of disabled people with 3 or more impairments are now inactive, rising by 11.2% from last year.

With this in mind, we continue to target disabled people and their supporting network who continue to shield and are unable to return to community settings to be active.

Building a wider, more confident workforce

The resource is primarily designed for people who are supporting individuals with complex disabilities including parents, siblings, carers, support staff, sports coaches or volunteers, aiming to grow their knowledge and confidence. The resource will help guide those who haven’t had experience facilitating activities for disabled people, without the need for formal training.

Sense Active subsequently hopes to upskill a non-traditional workforce outside the sports sector and improve the inactivity levels for disabled people that are unable to return to community settings.

Chloe Brown, Sense Sport & Physical Activity Coordinator for the East of England, who led the development of the resource, commented: “It’s more vital than ever that parents, siblings and carers feel confident to facilitate activities at home. We know that they won’t have lots of space or specialist adapted equipment, so this resource has been created with that in mind. We want to make it as easy as possible for disabled people to stay active and hopefully this is one way we can continue to help.”

Support Worker, Sense Service commented: “This resource gives us all more ideas and step by step instructions. We’ve tried lots of the activities; drumming was brilliant and balloon keep up was really good fun. The staff joined in and loved it! It’s helped push us to try new activities and to be more creative with what we do.”

Get involved: Use, share and promote with #SenseActive

Please support the use and promotion of Making Sense of Mini-Games by doing either or all of the following:

• Download: Making Sense of Mini-Games is now available to download, in either a PDF or accessible word document version. Please click here to download: https://www.sense.org.uk/get-support/arts-sport-and-wellbeing/sense-sport/resources/
• Printed version: To request a printed version, please email sense.active@sense.org.uk.
• Promote: Please use the accompanying partner pack to promote the new resource with your networks. The partner pack includes the resource, social media graphics and photos. Please share via website articles, newsletters or social media.
• Social Share: When sharing the resource on social media, please use our social tag @SenseCharity and use the hashtag #SenseActive.