Engaging Youth: Bringing Wheelchair Basketball to Elementary Schools

Project Description:

This project has documented our group’s findings from a research study we conducted with Wheelchair Basketball Canada (WBC) in a case study report. The report provides a background explaining wheelchair basketball’s past, the evolution of the sport, marketing/advertising, and the target audience for Wheelchair Basketball Canada.

Our team conducted four focus group interviews. The focus groups were needed to understand the initial issues, define the problem, gather insights, and provide recommendations. The four focus groups were: WBC executives, wheelchair basketball athletes, subject matter experts (SME), and youth (18 to 30 years old).

Our case study report describes how data was collected, curated, and analyzed while providing an overview of who the research participants were and how they were recruited. Our research findings section of the report includes nine distinct themes that have been observed from all the panel discussions:

Theme 1: Positive experience with wheelchair basketball and sports
Theme 2: Sense of community
Theme 3: Engaging youth
Theme 4: Hard to find funding for Wheelchair Basketball Canada
Theme 5: Sponsors
Theme 6: Exposure and Education
Theme 7: Participant perspectives on the cost of the wheelchair
Theme 8: Inclusivity in Wheelchair Basketball
Theme 9: Wheelchair is hard to use

After discussing the findings and coming up with some insights, the report outlines a strategy for improving WBC’s awareness, outreach, and general participation. Our intervention plan involves hosting a WBC game at elementary schools with complimentary activities for kids, like meeting athletes and trying out wheelchairs. It would include two stages: planning and execution. Planning involves approaching schools and planning out the logistics of transporting the athletes and wheelchairs to the school. The execution phase involves running the event with a local grassroots-level team and a speaker who is responsible for moderating the event and teaching the kids about the sport. The team can speak about their experiences as both able-bodied and disabled athletes. Finally, this event can end with the kids trying wheelchair basketball and getting a souvenir ticket for a professional wheelchair basketball game in their area. This event can help spread the message about how wheelchair basketball is an inclusive sport that can be played by anyone.

We believe that providing a direct engagement for students to try wheelchair basketball in school at a young age can help spread awareness about the sport, decrease the stigma around playing parasports, and in turn, incentivize more people to get directly involved with the sport.

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