Para Sport Collective

Siobhan Terry and coach Jack Cooper pointing at the camera

The Para Sport Collective is a 3-year programme, co-designed with Para athletes, coaches and other stakeholders, and consists of two intakes of pre-high performance Para athletes and coaches from a wide range of Para sports.

The central purpose of the Para Sport Collective is to connect Para athletes and coaches, while surrounding them with support and a range of learning and development opportunities.

A monitoring and evaluation framework has been developed to track the impact and outcomes of the Para Sport Collective, as the basis for ongoing improvements.

Intake 1

The 1^st intake of the Para Sport Collective ran from May 2023 until March 2024 and involved 22 Para athletes and 15 coaches, from 14 different Para sports. The intake was an overwhelming success, with all participants reporting that the connections, skills and knowledge they have gained have been of huge benefit in their respective journeys along a performance sport pathway.

Testimony from participants

“The skills I learnt from the Para Sport Collective have been massive. The knowledge & meeting other athletes was an amazing experience.”

“This is a complete game changer. For the many sports who may not have the resources and the ability to excel within their sports. I can only hope that this amazing programme continues for many more years to come as I have personally found myself enlightened and privileged to be a part of this amazing initiative. Go Kiwi’s!”

Intake 2

The 2nd intake of the Para Sport Collective (“the Collective”)commenced in May 2024, and involves 25 Para athletes and 12 coaches, from 11 different Para sports.

Growing on the success of intake 1, PNZ created an opportunity for nominated National Sports Organisation (NSO) staff to join the Para Sport Collective in ‘observer roles’ as part of intake 2. The observer roles were based off the immense value that NSOs saw in the Collective and PNZ recognising the opportunity to support development of Para sport knowledge across the sector.

Over the course of a year, Intake 2 participants will take part in 3 in-person Camps and 6 online connects, covering a range of topics/areas of performance support. They will finish the Collective not only as a closely connected group, but with a good understanding of the high performance sport landscape, with individual performance/development plans, and armed with confidence and a circle of support to help them enjoy success in sport and life.