THE DISABILITY KARATE FEDERATION
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Mission Statement
The Disability Karate Federation is a registered charity that uses the iconic nature of martial arts to change the lives of people who are disabled, disadvantaged or living with poverty. Martial arts are the vehicle we use to create outcomes in physical and mental well-being and personal development, and how we build and strengthen inclusion in traditional communities and the new modern communities of social media. We use the martial arts to create volunteering, education and employment opportunities for people who are disabled, suffering from mental illness, ill health, infirmity or living with poverty. Martial arts are just as vibrant, engaging and relevant to children and young people today as they have always been. DKF write accredited OFQUAL regulated coaching qualifications and train coaches to teach inclusively. Disabled and disadvantaged people are the focus and we therefore educate and employ disabled people as coaches and for our staff.
About This Cause
The Disability Karate Federation (DKF) is an innovative registered charity based in the muliti-cultural City of Oxford located in the middle of England. The DKF is the largest disability karate organisation in the world and our board contains both disabled and non-disabled people. BACKGROUND TO MARTIAL ARTS “Budo” in Japanese or “Wudao” in Chinese have a deeper meaning than just the English translation of “Martial Arts”. Budo and Wudao actually mean “the Way of Preventing War”. Martial arts were founded on the principles known as the “Seven Virtues of Bushido”; determination, benevolence and compassion, right behaviour and actions, sincerity, integrity and honesty, and responsibility. It is interesting to note that these principles run parallel to both modern sport values and European values. It is these values which underpin the work of the DKF. This is also highly relevant in education which nurtures the development of character, values and life skills. Martial arts were designed to provide physical activity for life. The black belt system traditionally starts at 16 years old for a person`s first black belt and athletes may attain the final 10th degree when they reach a minimum of 74 years of age, after a lifetime of practice Martial Arts are not the object of what we do, but martial arts are iconic and they are fun. Everyone has heard of Bruce Lee, the Karate Kid or Kung Fu Panda, everyone has attempted that karate chop. Ever popular and with wide appeal, martial arts have the potential to create social change. The DKF take karate into disadvantaged communities all over the UK and work with organisations and disabled people to help them tackle their issues and motivate them to take steps towards better health, recovery and independent living. We decrease the number of physically inactive people by taking our sessions to wherever there is a need. We have moved the furniture aside to run regular sessions in classrooms and offices, we have run sessions in a field and even in a hotel conference room. We promote healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, and also offer opportunities to join mainstream sessions to provide some of the essential elements towards inclusion. A supplementary goal of the DKF is to increase access of persons with a disability to self-defence learning experiences. Persons with a disability are often perceived to be powerless, helpless, and unable to protect themselves , and they are often targets for violent crime, including homicide, assault, rape, and robbery. Research has documented that abuse of old people is most widespread among people with a disability, and bullying is especially prevalent among children with disabilities or developmental disorders . So the need to promote martial arts experiences for these groups has a very practical dimension too. There is evidence of increasing use of martial arts as vehicles for engaging and including persons with disabilities in physical and social settings. The Disability Karate Federation are among the few who specifically work in this area. Part of the appeal of martial arts is the diversity of forms they can take. In addition, although the literature examining the effects of martial arts on participants is limited, most research suggests potential benefits. Studies from related areas indicate that such positive outcomes are most likely to occur when facilitated by a trained coach . Specifically, traditional martial arts training has been associated with lower levels of aggression, increased self-esteem, anxiety, increases in autonomy and enhanced cardiovascular health . The health benefits of martial arts participation are important to emphasise. A recent multi-national review demonstrated that active lifestyles were associated with improvements in physical and psychological health, social inclusion, life skills, educational outcomes, and career prospects. Unfortunately, there is now mounting evidence that physically inactivity lifestyles are more common among persons with a disability than the population as a whole, and that such inactivity is associated with a wide range of health difficulties, including non-communicable diseases, obesity, mental ill-health, mobility problems, and social exclusion . The combination of disability and health problems can create a vicious cycle, posing additional health burdens and further restricting functioning and independence. This suggests that promoting physical activity among persons with disabilities is even more important than it already is for the general population. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The DKF seeks to contribute to the implementation of participation strategies for all groups of society in physical activity and sport. We are contacted by people all over the country who used to take part in martial arts but became disabled and were either told that they could not participate or believed that their disability prevented them from participating. We meet the demand and the huge interest from this inactive group of people. KickStart 100 is our efficient and sustainable mass participation model for around 100 disabled athletes designed through insight from the many pilot projects we have run all around the UK. KickStart 100 is both scaleable and replicable. We aim for extra-curricular sessions in primary and secondary schools to reach the 95% of disabled young people who attend mainstream schools. Because the biggest barrier to disabled people’s participation in sport is transport, we take our sessions to wherever disabled people are. (EFDS) Engagement in sport often occurs because of the community aspects; it is fun, close by, friends go and it has lots of social benefits. Equally, disengagement occurs at life transition points such as the change from primary to secondary school or from special school to college where the original sport opportunity is no longer available. To ensure we build active lives we set up KickStart 100 wherever our target groups are and base the sessions in central Community Hubs in a secondary school and a sports centre. Satellites, each containing 15 people or more, are set up around the Community Hubs in primary, secondary, special schools, day care, college and university. We can seamlessly signpost athletes from feeder primary to secondary school, from secondary to college, college to university and university to sports centre. We signpost disabled and disadvantaged people from the Satellites to the Community Hubs in order to create inclusion and more than once per week participation. Teachers, TAs, parents, carers and young non-disabled people are encouraged to participate side by side with disabled athletes and a typical KickStart session will have athletes from 5 to 80 years old, families, include many women and girls, and disabled and non-disabled people all training together. We provide each person with a free karate suit and white belt and free membership of the DKF to remove the barrier of cost. Each person receives a free adapted syllabus book which is both written and pictorial to make it accessible for people with learning disability. The syllabus contains Red Light and Green Light Foods to help athletes understand good nutrition. The adaptations in the syllabus provide achievable challenges which promote enjoyment regardless of young person’s level of ability and avoids some of the negative/bad experiences of martial arts We provide eight free sessions of martial arts and during the sessions we select several people with the best physical literacy to become qualified Activator Coaches. We culminate the first phase of KickStart with a free grading and free coloured belt for each athlete which engenders a sense of competence. This community of athletes, family and friends are encouraged to drop in and out of sessions to tweet videos and use social media to show the successes of the group. Continued participation enables us to encourage people to volunteer as buddies to work with people with lesser abilities in the sessions. Both disabled and non-disabled people can act as buddies and disabled people are strongly encouraged to take on mentoring and volunteer roles. Because the coaches and Activators are properly trained in inclusion and our adapted syllabuses provide achievable challenges for children and disabled people we are able to use the physical activity to build self-esteem, self-confidence, self-regulation and self-discipline. We improve physical and mental well-being and even create cognitive change through the complexity of movement. As they progress, athletes and participants are encouraged to extend their skills and education with additional coaching qualifications which can lead to volunteering and employment opportunities with the DKF. Whilst volunteering with disabled and disadvantaged people is often a reward in itself, volunteers are rewarded with DKF certification for volunteering at our Festivals of martial arts and can even be rewarded in our week long retreats at centerparcs and international travel to volunteer in Festivals in other countries. The DKF takes longer term volunteers from the UK and other countries and upskills the volunteers in all areas of our work. We also employ new graduates as interns and give them the skills and experience to become the next generation of leaders in sport. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT The community are given ownership of the group and encouraged to organise social events. The community elects a volunteer representative to attend meetings with the DKF and provide feedback on the growing sense of community and any improvements that might be made to KickStart. The DKF organise Festivals of Martial Arts which are free for every athlete. Young non-disabled athletes are encouraged to volunteer and assist each disabled athlete to perform their skills We bring members of different UK Communities together to travel abroad and meet disabled and non-disabled young people from other countries. We investigate topics such as their sense of community and social media. We ensure that everyone can participate, everyone can achieve and everyone can enjoy the feelings that achievement brings.