The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Open Court Programme actively promotes and delivers opportunities to enable tennis to be more inclusive and accessible for individuals with various disabilities.

Hampshire & IOW Tennis (HIOWT) works in association with the LTA to facilitate comprehensive disability programmes, delivered by local providers, tennis venues and coaches. These partners provide disability-specific sessions for tennis including adaptations for learning disability, wheelchair, visually impaired and deaf participants, as well working with other long-term health conditions such as mental health and dementia. HIOWT’s charitable aim is to open up opportunities for everyone to enjoy tennis.

How does the programme work?

HIOWT’s Open Court Lead, Jo Dallas, has extensive experience in tennis coaching and her commitment to supporting people with acquired brain injury through innovative programs further highlights her dedication to inclusivity. She has a good understanding of the therapeutic benefits of physical activity shown through her ability to integrate tennis into hospital settings for patients recovering from brain injury.

Jo is keen to develop relationships with local organisations who care for service users with a variety of needs and that are looking to establish some tennis activity within their programmes. She then attempts to connect those organisations with regional delivery partners, who are beacons of good practice in disability tennis delivery.

Current projects include working with organisations such as Headway, SENSE, Pavilions on the Park and Active Nation, whilst current delivery partners include Portsmouth Tennis Centre, JEM Tennis, Ryde Tennis Club and Absolute Tennis.

Jo has access to some funding, allowing her to seed new programmes, and then help them to become as sustainable as possible. HIOWT’s goal is to facilitate the long-term success of inclusive projects and accordingly, can allocate some ongoing funding to support this.

HIOWT also works with an external charity who can support community sports clubs, organisations and volunteers to provide inclusive programmes.