The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the availability of up to $8 million in grant funding intended to provide adaptive sports opportunities for veterans and members of the Armed Forces with disabilities.
Sloan Gibson, VA acting secretary, emphasizes, “Adaptive sports can help veterans confront challenges and redefine their capabilities, which is critical to successful rehabilitation.”
A video appearing on the VA Adaptive Sports Program website illustrates the multiple ways veterans and Armed Forces members with disabilities can use adaptive sports to “redefine their capabilities.”
The VA states in a recent news release that the new grant program is designed to provide grants to eligible entities to plan, develop, manage, and implement appropriate adaptive sports activities geared toward veterans with disabilities and Armed Forces members with disabilities. Funding, the release says, may be used for training, program development, equipment, recreation therapists, coaches, sports equipment, supplies, program evaluation, and other activities linked to program implementation and operation.
The VA Adaptive Sports website notes that the legislation that established the Grants for Adaptive Sports Programs for disabled Veterans and Members of the Armed Forces (ASG Program) states that federal agencies are not eligible to receive grant funding from the program. The site emphasizes, however, that federal agencies are encouraged to partner with non-federal entities in order to jointly create national, regional, and community-based programs that provide adaptive sports activities for veterans with disabilities and Armed Forces members with disabilities.
Applications for the adaptive sports program are due August 11.
[Source: US Department of Veterans Affairs]
