Workshop on Orienteering for Youngsters with Autism set for November

The SOA Development team is organising a workshop on orienteering for youngsters with autism and related additional support needs, to be held at Levenmouth Academy, Fife, on Nov 16th. There are a few places available for interested orienteers to attend and contribute to the workshop.

The plan for the workhop is below. Please contact Sarah Dunn, sarah@scottish-orienteering.org , if you are interested in attending. The remaining spaces will be assigned on a first come basis.

Date and Venue:

Levenmouth Academy, Fife, Sat 16th Nov 10:00-15:30

Objective:

To explore how orienteering can be used positively to support youngsters on the autistic spectrum and how the sport can be marketed to encourage participation by this group

Participants:

SOA development team, Invited specialists in autism, Orienteers with an interest in working with ASN youngsters. ~15 people. We already have 10 confirmed attendees

Format:

The detailed programme for the day is still to be confirmed and open to input from participants. The overarching aim is to come up with a plan for trialling and implementing some ideas of how to take orienteering out to autistic youngsters. This is likely to include taking ideas away from the day to develop a funding  application to support the work. Some of the things to consider include:

• target groups
• identifying the benefits (i.e. why do we want to do it)
• identifying any likely “problems”
• types of activity
• suitable locations (school playground / parklands / elsewhere)
• potential trial areas

Costs:

SOA will cover reasonable travel costs for invited participants to attend the workshop including mileage at SOA volunteer rate or travel by train / bus. Lunch and refreshments will be provided free of charge.