A PUSH to get people of all abilities more active in sports and exercise will officially begin on Saturday.

The Get Out Get Active programme will focus on three areas of the district, Manningham, Holme Wood and Keighley, and aims to “change people’s mindsets” about exercise.

In January it was announced that Spirit of 2012, set up to continue the London Olympic legacy, would fund the £4.5 million initiative, which will support disabled and non-disabled people to enjoy being active together.

It is aimed at the UK’s “least active” and locally the Bradford Disability sports and Leisure has been awarded £300,697 over three years. The funding is to “motivate people to be active through friendships, maintaining health, having fun and progressing in life.”

In Manningham the programme will focus on improving opportunities for women and girls from ethnic minorities. The programmes will include women’s only activity evenings, ladies only cycle clubs and inclusive Parkruns.

The Holme Wood programme will provide community programmes in partnership with Bradford Council and the Streetgames charity to offer affordable activities, including “pop up” clubs in and around the estate.

The Keighley programme will work with partners including Run England and Echo to support current activities including family fitness nights, inclusive wheelchair programmes and running clubs. University Academy Keighley will host a number of the activities.

The scheme kicks off at a free public event at Unique Fitness and Lifestyle at the University of Bradford from 11am to 3pm on Saturday. The event includes inclusive events like wheelchair basketball and street dance.

Dean Carroll, manager at BDSL, said: “It’s a great achievement for Bradford to be part of this exciting project. We are looking forward to working with all our local partners to successfully deliver this programme and can’t wait to get started.”

Barry Horne, the chief executive for the English Federation of Disability Sport, said: “It is a powerful proposition- to get so many more people out and active and we are proud to be leading on such a major investment. The programme has the potential to change how we encourage, enable and engage more people through active recreation opportunities.

“For many of those we are trying to attract, these opportunities have been out of reach or unappealing. Changing people’s mindsets is not an overnight solution and that’s why we’ve called upon so many partners to help make it happen.”

Statistics show disabled people to be the least active population, and two thirds of disabled people say they want to take part in more activities with non-disabled people.

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