The Town of Milton, Ontario is a dynamic, growing municipality that offers a wide range of recreation programs for people of all ages and abilities. Offering Challenger Baseball was a stepping stone in their continued efforts towards barrier free recreation in the Town. Before they launched the program, they reached out to the minor baseball league, and did local benchmarking to assess the need for an adapted sport program in the community. They also used their own feedback from parents who were looking for more sport-based activities for their children with exceptionalities.
Milton also decided to use sport and inclusion staff to run the programs. This approach had great benefits for both staff and the participants! Sport and inclusion staff all learned something new in the training, and the program plans and activities were easy to implement in the program. Project leaders Jeremy Kennedy and Heather Granger, Coordinator’s of Recreation summed up the experience this way “The program's ability to increase social connection, resiliency, and enhance the support for the participants each week is noteworthy. Parents and participants have expressed gratitude for the program and staff because of the benefits their family received during the 6 week period.
"The program's ability to increase social connection, resiliency and enhance the support for the participants each week is noteworthy. Parents and participants have expressed gratitude for the program and staff because of the benefits their family received during the 6-week period."
Jeremy Kennedy, Program Leader, Coordinator