DiSCO - Dodgeball in Schools and the Community Outreach

History
The project began back in 2009 as a way to get more people in Nottingham playing dodgeball and to give students at the University of Nottingham the opportunity to get some hands on experience coaching and working with children. In addition, we are looking to make the game more inclusive, by making adjusments to make it more accessible to different disability groups. A passion for sport and a love of working with children underpin all the work we do, and make for a fun experience for all involved. The project began working with four schools in the Nottingham City area. The work with these schools later fed into the Leadership Academy programme, which we now partner with. In addition to this, we have been running sessions in Oak Field's Special Olympics Club for the past 4 years. This went on to give rise to an annual inclusive dodgeball festival, taking place in November, and we have plans to add even more inclusive events to the calendar. Aims
The project has four main aims:-

To give students the opportunity to gain coaching qualifications and experience working with children through the delivery of dodgeball sessions. To promote the sport of dodgeball to the local community and get children who otherwise feel disengaged with mainstream sports active. To make reasonable adjusments to the sport to make it accesible to disability groups. To raise the profile of dodgeball within the University, for example, by supporting projects such as Nu2 Sport.