Leeds Rhinos Foundation is delighted to announce they have extended their partnership with Aspire CBS for another year, which will allow them to continue their work with people with learning disabilities across the city.
Over the last twelve months Leeds Rhinos Foundation has worked with Aspire CBS, who are a social enterprise, to support over 200 people in Leeds with a learning disability and have provided rugby league and healthy eating sessions as part of the landmark partnership.
Chris Godfrey, disability coordinator at Leeds Rhinos Foundation said: "We are really excited to renew the partnership with Aspire CBS. Year one showed a great amount of uptake from both the customers and staff from Aspire and we hope to further this in year two.
"It has been great to see two Leeds based charities working together to deliver great work and complement each other's programmes. Hopefully this will continue long into the future for many years to come."
Aspire are based at sites including Bramley, Rothwell and Crossgates and the partnership involves Leeds Rhinos Foundation delivering 12 blocks of one-hour coaching that explores the basic rugby and movement skills through small sided games and fun fully-inclusive mixed ability delivery. Alongside the activity sessions the customers also get advice on how to live a healthier life, focusing on the importance of fresh fruit and vegetables over sugar and fat.
Mark Pollard, Rothwell Hub said the benefits of the partnership have been incredible for Aspire's customers.
"One of the main benefits of the partnership is the confidence our customers get from the sessions," he said.
"From watching them starting off doing littles bits of movement to then by the end of the year seeing them passing balls, running, shouting and remembering names is brilliant. The more we work on it, the more confident they get with the training.
"Chris is a great communicator, he brings it down to their level and the beauty of what Chris does is, that he works with both wheelchair customers and able-bodied customers and manages to integrates them together into one unit, which is really difficult to do and Chris brings that to our team at Aspire.
"We have got some die-hard Rhinos fans and one lad went to Catalans to watch them play. Once Chris came out with his Rhinos top on, he was straight there and the brand does have a massive impact, there's an identity and a brand that they know and like because they watch on TV and go to the ground, so it's great for Aspire and Leeds Rhinos Foundation."
On Tuesday September 25 customers from Aspire will be invited to take part in the annual Leeds Rhinos Foundation Disability Tag Rugby Festival at John Charles Centre for Sport.
"The Disability Tag Rugby Festival is always a great event that I know everyone looks forward to. As a charity we aim to make sport accessible for everyone and this Festival is a great example of that and we are proud to run it once again with the support of Leeds City Council. It's fantastic for the people who come to my sessions to have something like this to look forward to and to try out their skills in a fun environment and on a big occasion."
If you would like to book a team CLICK HERE to download the booking form. The cost per team is £25 and the event runs from 9.30am – 3pm.
For more information on the partnership contact Chris.Godfrey@leedsrhinosfoundation.org