Disability Challengers

About the charity

Playing, having fun and making friends is serious stuff and every child has the right to access challenging and exciting play opportunities.

However, many children can’t or don’t feel able to access mainstream play and leisure opportunities - these are children with a range of emotional, behavioural, physical, social, learning and sensory impairments. Not only does this hamper their development but it also places enormous strains on the whole family.

The results are shown in evidence of considerable increased likelihood of parental separation and poverty. To combat this, registered children’s charity Disability Challengers was established in 1979 to provide exciting and challenging play and leisure opportunities to disabled children and young people.

We support any child or young person with any impairment through our Play (age 3 - 13), Youth (age 13 - 18) and Young Adult schemes (18-25). We do this through our play and youth centres in Guilford and Farnham, Surrey, and through our range of community based projects across the county.

A significant benefit of our service is providing families with short-breaks during high pressure times e.g. at the weekend or during the school holidays, enabling them to do ‘ordinary’ activities such as working or spending time with their other children.

Our Vision... Our research shows that the way Disability Challengers works and the voluntary / statutory partnerships we have formed are highly effective but rare. While our service focuses on providing disabled children with essential play opportunities the benefits of our work are far reaching and have positive effects on the wider economy and society.

We are currently conducting research into our ‘model’ in order to provide evidence that this model should be developed as a ‘national strategy’ by the voluntary and statutory sector. For more information please visit www.disability-challengers.org