Skip to main content
The Ontario Parasport Collective started with a simple belief: we must do better for individuals with disabilities in Ontario.

Ontario Parasport and Adapted Physical Activity Summit, presented by the Ontario Parasport Collective

The 2015 Parapan Am Games and Accessibility for Ontarians with a Disability Act (AODA) provided an opportunity for a community of leaders to come together to focus on enhancing access and engagement to quality sport for Ontarians with a disability. A Games Legacy Initiative revealed the importance and value of moving forward as a united and committed group. From that galvanizing point emerged the Ontario Parasport Collective (OPC), a collective of like-minded individuals, organizations and champions.

In 2016, that group developed a vision for collaborative action to guide, support and align efforts. The Ontario Parasport Collective (OPC) was built on the contributions of willing partners and based on leadership and readiness.
These dedicated and diverse partners were committed to making parasport a priority. Partnerships with the Ontario Government (Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport) and its investments in equipment and programming helped further engage the partners in the Collective.

The summit was the culmination of the five-year journey of the OPC. It was a mix of plenary, breakouts and collaboration sessions that shared knowledge and brought together people committed to disability sport and recreation.

Ophea Videos

The Working with Schools 101 Mini-Series has been developed to enhance the capacity of community sport organizations to connect and work with schools.

Ontario Parasport Collective

  • Leadership Pillar Projects

    To develop the current and future capacityof sport leaders, including coaches, officials, classifiers, volunteers, and administrators who lead parasport in Ontario, priority focus areas were determined to be resources and inventories, and training and professional development.

  • Education

    To develop and leverage partnerships and build capacity for parasport at all levels within the education sector, priority focus areas included inclusive physical literacy, resource development and inventory, and research and knowledge transfer. Overarching goals were to ensure more youth are participating in quality parasport programs and that more teachers, schools and school boards are engaged and supporting parasport involvement.

  • Pathways 1

    This OPC Pillar was divided into two streams – Pathways 1 andPathways 2 – and worked to align and integrate the parasport pathway for Ontarians through three focus areas: 1) Participation Pathway, 2) Para Pathway Development, and 3) Ontario Excellence Pathway.

    Priority areas for the Participation Pathway included awareness and first-involvement, grassroots community participation and community transitions to sport. The primary goal was to improve entry and increase participation rates of children with disabilities in sports.

  • Pathways 2

    The purpose of this Ontario Parasport Collective Pillar was to facilitate the development of high-performance athlete planning and support specific projects linked to Gold Medal profiling. Success was determined by improved performance and results by Ontario parasport athletes.

Ontario Parasport and Adapted Physical Activity Summit Videos

Plenary, breakouts and collaboration sessions.
“The research we accomplished would have been nearly impossible without the OPC. The partnerships we forged to do the work opened gateways never previously available to our team. It was meaningful to do work that made a scientific contribution to create products with potential to impact change.”
Amy Latimer-Cheung