BORP offers year-round sports and recreation programs serving a wide variety of ages, interests and abilities.
BORP’s Youth Sports Program offers year-round competitive and recreational sports activities for disabled children and youth ages 5-19, including wheelchair basketball, power soccer, Jr. Adventures, sled hockey, and handcycling. Under the guidance of caring volunteer alumni, coaches and staff, young athletes build confidence, self-esteem and independence while developing lifetime fitness habits. Youth teams have opportunities for travel to local and national tournaments.
The Adult Sports Program offers year-round activities at least three nights a week, including Wheelchair Basketball, Power Soccer, and Goalball (a unique sport for individuals with visual impairments). Emphasis is on increasing fitness and playing skills, with opportunities for local and regional tournament team participation. This program provides a structured sports environment for our graduating youth program participants, as well as opportunities for disabled adults trying sports for the first time. For many of our participants, our programs are their only opportunity for establishing a regular fitness routine.
The Adventures & Outings Program provides disabled children, adults, and families with access to the many wonderful outdoor and urban attractions that the Bay Area has to offer, in a supportive and integrated environment. Participants get out into nature, explore their communities, get fresh air and exercise, and try new activities that they never thought were possible for themselves. BORP offers weekly urban outings such as theater trips, museum tours, and art festivals as well as more adventurous outdoor excursions including guided walks and nature hikes on local blind and accessible trails, adaptive skiing trips, kayaking, rafting, and whale watching.
The Adaptive Cycling Program is an integrated program serving children, youth, adults and families. Non-disabled and disabled participants with mobility challenges and visual impairments participate together in organized group rides or they can just stop by the cycling center to ride on their own. With the support of our knowledgeable staff and dedicated volunteers, cyclists of all ability levels explore local Bay Area biking trails throughout the year using our large fleet of adaptive cycles, including tandems, hand cycles, recumbents, standard bikes and three-wheelers. Many participants train for BORP’s annual fundraising ride, The Revolution, which takes place in the fall in Sonoma wine country.
The BORP Fitness Center has been open since November 2010 and is BORP’s newest addition to it’s programming line up. The BORP Fitness Center provides group exercise classes in a fully integrated environment, serving both people with and without disabilities. The BORP Fitness Center is the only group exercise space in the greater Bay Area that serves everyone. Fitness classes include Adaptive Yoga, Core Conditioning, Upper Body Strengthening, Tai Chi, Feldenkrais, and more! All classes are adaptable for all abilities, and all instructors are ready and willing to find what works for you.
We are also trying to bring our programs to those who need us most:
Disabled Minorities
About half the Bay Area’s 868,000 disabled residents are minorities. They are the least served of any disability group. BORP is working to create an innovative, language and culturally appropriate outreach structure to bring in new minorities to existing programs. Participants will derive the following benefits: community integration, independence, decreased social isolation, the advantages of fitness and good health, acquisition of skills that aid employment-use of public transport, exposure to working peers, increased social group, access to resources and education. Read about our efforts to increase minority participation.
The Mobility Matters! Project and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Consumers
BORP’s Mobility Matters! Project, a travel training program funded in part by a New Freedom grant issued by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, aspires to serve any and all eligible consumers who have a need for travel training, including LEP consumers.
In an effort to serve LEP consumers, the Mobility Matters! Project’s is able to make all materials used for education and outreach available in Spanish. This is done with the help of volunteer translators upon request.
Upon request, BORP staff or volunteers can provide Spanish-language instruction to trainees whose goals have included mastering the physical aspects of using fixed route transit, obtaining a Regional Transit Connection Discount Card, and learning to use 511.org to plan trips. If, for any reason, BORP is unable to provide these services, Mobility Matters! Project’s staff will make a referral to another agency and ensure that LEP consumers are served. All services that the Mobility Matters! Project offers can be and are delivered in Spanish to LEP consumers who are able to understand Spanish. In cases where English proficient consumers have family or other stakeholders who are LEP but proficient in Spanish, we are able to engage the family and stakeholders in Spanish as necessary.
