British Blind Sport releases new impact report

British Blind Sport (BBS) has released its 2019 Impact Report, focussing on the developments and results the charity saw throughout last year.

British Blind Sport, the national disability sport organisation for people with a visual impairment, saw its membership grow to 1217 people by the end of 2019, with 59% of those being under 18 years of age. During 2019, the charity processed 260 sight classifications across the UK, to enable people to take part in competitive sport.

The report shows that, during 2019, the most popular reasons for taking part in physical activity were being healthy, feeling good and enjoyment. The report also showed that 78% of British Blind Sport members were meeting the Chief Medical Officers recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week.

BBS found that the most participated in activities for people with sight loss were Swimming, Walking and Cricket during 2019, with the most attended BBS events being the National Youth Swimming Gala and Have a Go Days. Both of these events received excellent feedback for 2019, with 100% of attendants responding that they had fun and would take part again in a similar event.

When it came to member engagement, the top three visited website pages throughout 2019 were Events, Classifications and Play Sport, suggesting that service users are visiting the BBS website to find out how they can get active. BBS also saw a 35% increase in Facebook followers during 2019.

In terms of partnership working, BBS have continued to work with partners and build solid relationships in the sport and sight loss sectors, with 95% of partners stating they would work with BBS again in the future.

Alex Pitts, National Partnerships Manager, said “I’m really excited to be able to finally release our 2019 Impact Report. It reflects the hard work everyone in the charity put in last year and the fantastic results that it yielded. We’re currently working hard towards achieving our strategic aims, despite some adaptations we have had to make in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. We continue to develop projects, partnerships and engagement to maximise opportunities and our capacity for all.”

For more information on the British Blind Sport 2019 Impact Report, please contact alex@britishblindsport.org.uk or phone 01926 424247