Valley Go! Adaptive Handcycling, Boating, and Waterskiing

Valley GO! is proposed as an adaptive sports program for community and campus-based veterans with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities. The purpose of Valley GO! is to increase participation in physical activity and improve quality of life for veterans with disabilities in the San Fernando Valley region of northern Los Angeles County. The program is proposed as a collaboration between the Center of Achievement for Adapted Physical Activity and the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), together with the Triumph Foundation, a support organization for individuals with spinal cord injury. This grant will support the design, development, and implementation of the Valley GO! program. While the Center of Achievement at CSUN supports veterans through adapted physical activity and therapeutic exercise programs, Valley GO! will be the first program offering engagement in adapted sports for the campus community. Valley GO! will have an initial focus on the sport of handcycling. Handcycling strengthens upper limbs and improves cardiovascular fitness while offering participants movement from one place to another. It also offers social and competitive opportunities to recreate with able-bodied friends and family. In its initial year, Valley GO! will consist of several training opportunities, clinics, and community handcycling events. Specifically, the program will support: the purchase and placement of handcycles for ongoing use by disabled veterans in the CSUN Student Recreation Center; workshops for CSUN Kinesiology students on handcycling and working with disabled veteran populations; handcycling clinics and rides for campus-based and community disabled veterans; and two 5K handcycling races/events in two local venues ? the CSUN campus and the Lake Balboa cycling trail at the Sepulveda Recreation Area. By providing access to handcycles, instruction, and assistance, we will be able to promote the sport to a larger number of disabled veterans who would not otherwise have access to this equipment and expertise. Valley GO! will develop a group of trained students, staff, faculty, and community members to help sustain and grow the program over time. It is anticipated that Valley GO! will engage over one hundred veterans during the course of the grant and provide educational opportunities for student veterans at CSUN. Through their collaboration, both CSUN and the Triumph Foundation have the capacity to design, develop, and implement Valley GO! CSUN has been actively serving individuals with physical disabilities since 1971 at the Center of Achievement through Adapted Physical Activity. The Center?s focus is on adapted therapeutic exercise, and each client receives an individualized exercise program focusing on goals and abilities. Founded in 2008, the Triumph Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose goal is to give individuals who have Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder an opportunity to push the limits of their ability, increase their self-efficacy, prevent sedentary lifestyle, and enhance their quality of life through the benefits of exercise, sports, and fitness. To date, the organization has touched the lives of over 5,000 individuals with disabilities; holds over 20 adaptive recreational activities annually, including wheelchair sports clinics, adaptive recreational activities, and outdoor adventures for people with disabilities. As a collaboration, Valley GO! will provide excellent opportunities for the sustainable development and implementation of adaptive sports programs for disabled veterans in northern Los Angeles.