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BMX Highriders project receives BIG Lottery Funding
A cycling project that offers challenging physical activities for disabled youngsters is celebrating success in the latest round of awards from the Big Lottery Fund's Awards for All programme.
Young people across Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield will benefit from £8374 funding received to create a BMX club for young people with special needs.
Kicking off with a trial run in the grounds of Ravenscliffe High School, Halifax, 'Highriders' will enable youngsters with less severe disabilities to take up the initial challenge of riding regular BMX bikes over a specially created grass track, complete with bumps and features to simulate the real thing.
The project, which aims to encourage disabled youngsters to aspire to activities they would not normally get involved with, will use the trials to develop and adapt a range of BMX bikes and track layouts to encourage young people with more severe disabilities to take up the challenge.
The scheme aims to give young people with disabilities the chance to enjoy new experiences, and provide hard to reach young people with new skills and practical experience. As such, ABLE trainees will work on the scheme, helping to adapt the bikes and design and maintain the bike track, learning vocational skills along the way. Graham Wiles, Project Manager of the The ABLE Project said: "We are thrilled to have been given this opportunity to work in partnership with an outstanding special school to make our BMX provision more inclusive and welcoming towards all young people, irrespective of their abilities."
Photograph from L - R, Dave Blackburn, Ravenscliffe Garden Manager, Casper Taylor, 'Chainbreakers' and the ABLE Project, Ravenscliffe High School student Benjamin. 
For more information and to keep up to date with this project, visit their blog-site.
