Screenshot 2022 03 15 at 2.14.11 PM
< back

Parafed Taranaki

Parafed Taranaki (Taranaki Paraplegic and Physically Disabled Incorporated) was founded in 1975. Their mission is to inspire people with physical disabilities to achieve equity, excellence and wellbeing through sport, recreation and play.
 
“I work with people living with a physical disability, schools, clubs and community groups to create better outcomes so that disabled people can create a lifelong love of physical activity,” said Tracy Coker, Advisor at Parafed Taranaki.
 
“The reasons for participating in physical activity are different for everyone and we try and create an environment so that disabled people can flourish. The feedback we get from our members shows that activity improves their physical and mental health, and gives them a sense of accomplishment.”

“We rely heavily on funding. We don’t charge a membership fee as this is a barrier to participation, so we don’t receive any money through membership,” Tracy said.

Toi Foundation provided 3-year multi funding of $75k from 2019 - 2021. This enabled Parafed Taranaki to provide opportunities to the disabled community to become physically active, through a wide range of initiatives.
 
“Funding streams are uncertain and vary year by year which can be an issue," Tracy said.
 
“The grant has enabled us to work with schools, clubs and community groups to create inclusive physical activity opportunities. We attended the Halberg Games with a Taranaki team in 2019 and 2021. We have delivered many programmes, including wheelchair basketball, yoga, adaptive cycling and annual surf events."
 
“Well over 1000 people have been affected by this grant over the three years. This grant has impacted Parafed Taranaki immensely. Without the grant, we wouldn’t have been able to create inclusive, equitable physical activity opportunities so disabled people could thrive throughout Taranaki.”

Back to Stories

Our website uses cookies to help understand and improve your experience. Please let us know if that’s okay by you.

Cookies help us understand how you use our website, so we can serve up the right information here and in our other marketing.