Our dance disability project ‘Strictly Sarrie’ has been back to face to face sessions for over a month and our participants are more excited than ever to be back!
During the lockdown we moved our sessions online to continue to engage with our participants while they were at home. Saracens Foundation’s coaches and volunteers worked hard over lockdown to continue to impact and engage with participants through our weekly interactive virtual dance classes. We understood that during lockdown it was more important than ever to ensure that our participants were able to engage with other young people with similar needs as well as keep active.
Disabled people reported twice as much as non-disabled people in September 2020 that the coronavirus pandemic was affecting their well-being. 45% of disabled people reported feeling lonely. Strictly Sarrie gave young people with disabilities a space to improve their mental and physical health, as well interact with their friends online during lockdown.
“Strictly Sarrie is better than the other online classes because our teacher is very attentive to everyone in the class and made every participant feel welcome, valued and respected.”
“Thanks so much. Obi’ engaged more than we expected. It’s a fab session.”
Since restrictions have eased, we have been able to welcome our participants back to our classes ‘in-person’. Saracens Foundation have been able to impact 24 young people this year through the Strictly Sarrie project’s remote and face to face sessions. With 100% of participant’s saying that they feel Strictly Sarrie helps them to feel happier and healthier due to the weekly sessions when asked. We were able to deliver a total of 11 hours of interactive virtual sessions this year and since lockdown our face to face classes have doubled in size!
“Thank you so much my girls absolutely loved it. Brogan has such an amazing time she came home and showed her dad the routine. Took us a while to get home but it was worth it.”
“Thank you Sapphire and team, great session. Really good to see you face to face. Andre had a lovely time, when we got back to the car, he gave me a kiss and said thank you mum.” “Thank you for all the positive energy. It really is great.”
If you would like to join Strictly Sarrie, please email sapphirefinlayter-gaskell@saracens.net to register your interest today!
Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund