Who are we?
Our Mission
OneAbility fosters active living and sport participation for people with disabilities by facilitating connections, partnerships, advocacy, education and knowledge sharing among its’ members and communities.
Background
OneAbility is a network of about 50 organizations and groups who are working together to promote and improve sport and recreation opportunities for people with disabilities. Founded in 2015, OneAbility started in the greater Victoria area and now includes members from around BC and other provinces.
OneAbility’s original mission was to bring organizations together to connect and communicate around the delivery of sport and physical activity programs and services for individuals with disabilities. As the organizations came together they realized the opportunity to collaborate, cross promote, learn from each other and create joint programming opportunities. The organizations all shared a common purpose, but most did not know about each other and had not worked together previously. It took time to build trust and establish mechanisms to support working together. However, once members started sharing and collaborating there were early wins with joint program opportunities, and shared promotions, education and training. OneAbility became a hub through which organizations could navigate shared challenges, identify shared opportunities, and also amplify the programs and services that were being offered across the region. Today it is clear that our collective efforts are strengthening members reach, programs and raising the profile of the field of disability recreation and sport – and there is the potential to do more together!
Goals
- Deepen member’s connections and capacity for pursuing their mandates.
- Enhance relationships and structures for joint promotions, education and advocacy.
- Grow the network.
- Develop the internal resources and structures needed for an effective, sustainable network.
The goals are focused on three types of impacts:
- Strengthening members programs and services
- Education and building the field of disability sport and recreation
- Ensuring OneAbility itself has the structures and resources needed to serve its’ members
Current Services
- Shared website and on-line calendar of events
- Shared Services to support member capacity building (services include: accounting, website design, Volunteer Victoria membership, event support).
- Monthly newsletters sharing programs, events, grant opportunities and training opportunities
- Monthly member forum offers networking, sharing and learning opportunities for anyone to join
- Learning Events
- Annual education day
- Program grants for members
- Strategic networking and relationship building with national and provincial organizations