For 35 years, the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability (ALACD)
has been encouraging people with disabilities to make sport, physical activity, and recreation a regular part of their lives and helping build the capacity of communities and organizations to make this possible.
There has been an increase in the number of people who identify with a disability. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of Canadians aged 15 years and older, or 8.0 million people, had one or more disabilities that limited them in their daily activities. This is an increase of five percentage points since 2017, when 22% of Canadians, or 6.2 million people, had one or more disabilities.
Unfortunately, people with disabilities have significantly fewer opportunities than other Canadians to enjoy the benefits of active recreation opportunities due to physical, social, and psychological barriers, which translates into poorer physical, mental and social health outcomes. Even low levels of physical activity have significant positive health effects.
ALACD is uniquely positioned to support organizations and communities who have an opportunity to influence physical activity opportunities for their constituents, whether they be in the SPAR sector, disability advocacy organizations, the education sector, the health sector and workplaces. As such, we are currently on a journey to revitalize and re-energize our organization so that we can amplify our efforts to do this work in order to, ultimately, make a difference in the quality of life of persons with a disability.
On this Giving Tuesday, we ask you to consider a donation to the ALACD to help us:
- Be a strong, relevant and effective voice for disability participation in sport, physical activity and recreation;
- Offer barrier-free, accessible, and welcoming opportunities for community and organizational leaders to learn, share information, and come together to strengthen the sector;
- Identify, share, and update (as needed) the existing resources of our partners (rather than creating more) to support the efforts of organizations and communities;
- Compensate people with disabilities and other lived experience for their contributions to our organization and the sector. They are the core of our work;
- Model accessibility in all that we do (such as providing sign language interpretation at all meetings, meeting accessibility standards in all our resources);
- Launch and continue to provide training to the parks and recreation sector on our Inclusion in Recreation and Physical Activity: Best Practices for Canadian Municipalities resource.
By supporting the ALACD, you will help us make a difference in the quality of life of persons with a disability through sport, physical activity, and recreation.
If you have specific questions about a donation to the ALACD, please contact Christa Costas-Bradstreet at ccostas@ala.ca.
Thank you for considering a small donation to our organization and broader network.