Climbing for All training. Gilford to Limerick.

My Climbing for All courses continue to be in great demand with Climbing Instructors throughout Ireland passionate about making their provision more inclusive. Two courses delivered in the last month, thanks to Mountaineering Ireland and Limerick Sports Partnership funding these courses. The Gilford course included staff from the community centre there and the Trainee instructors from Tollymore National Outdoor centre. The team at UL Sports Climbing wall in Limerick are really committee to their inclusion journey and will be hosting a Paralympics Ireland event in the next few weeks. Its great to see instructors at the start of their careers exposed to inclusion training as there is still a real gap across NGB awards and instructor Training  courses with the topic of inclusion that we need to close if we are to make Ireland's outdoors an inclusive space for the 20+% of the population with a disability. One in five people in Ireland and almost one in four people in the North declared a disability at the last census. So the challenge for us as outdoor instructors is, to firstly ask ourselves, is that figure represented in our current provision? If not, why not and how do we as Adventure providers break down those barriers? Some Instructor training courses are clearly focused in this area of work, but there is a real need for others to take a deep dive into their equality provision if we as a society are to embrace to potential of Ireland's outdoors. Its a privilege to be working in this area and hoping I can support more providers in the year ahead.