Steve's story.

Looking for some help to reach his personal goals, Steve approached his local representative to the State of Wisconsin Legislature. Steve wanted to improve his community's opportunities for access to fitness and health facilities for people with disabilities. From this simple contact, a group of interested consumers and professionals formed to develop a service called Sparta (Sports, Arts, Recreation and Theatre Access).

Although it was Steve's intention to develop a separate facility for people with disabilities, the group created an option to improve access to all existing area facilities based on individual consumer choice and need. The primary explanation for this eventual decision was group consensus to focus on the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which emphasizes integration into existing facilities and programs.

Within a year, Sparta transformed from an idea, to a plan, to a process of implementation, and finally to a service for people with disabilities. Organized as a non-profit corporation, Sparta is community based and consumer managed, with a Board of Directors and financial supporters.

Sparta encourages people with disabilities to use their community resources to a greater degree through its three-pronged approach. Sparta reaches out through: 1) scholarships for participation in community recreation activities, 2) outreach and education and 3) facility and program accessibility consultation.

Partial scholarships are provided for the purchase of tickets to recreation events or programs, or memberships in fitness facilities. Community outreach and education efforts to both service providers and consumers promotes a receptivenes to the needs and desires of people with disabilities increased knowledge of community resources for consumers. Accessibility consultation allows for a team of consumers and professionals to visit facilities and provide recommendations on how to improve programmatic access and services for people with disabilities.

Three major partners contributed to the project's development and provided general consultation support to the project; they are the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and the Health Promotion Project, both at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison School-Community Recreation.

Sparta's operational strength is directly attributable to the diversity and commitment of its board of directors. A 12-person board meets monthly to establish policy and practices and to review scholarship requests. Fifty-one percent of the board positions are, and must be, filled by people with disabilities, with representation from a cross section of different disability types. Other board positions are filled by area professionals and interested others. Consumers join Sparta as members for $5 each. Organizations join and promote the service to those they serve.

Another key to Sparta's success is the involvement of a variety of community support agencies and financial support from many different sources, including foundations, businesses and individuals. This past October, Sparta began receiving support from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Rehabilitation Services Administration and Recreational Programs for Individuals with Disabilities. A three-year grant totaling $43,700 will enable Sparta to provide quality services to people with disabilities in the Dade County area and serve as a national demonstration project for other communities.

Sparta has been in operation since the fall of 1994 and has been dispersing scholarships since january 1995. Over 50 individual consumer and agency members are now participating.

Hopefully, Sparta's services will not be necessary in five to 10 years. Its vision includes improved community receptiveness to people with disabilities and service providers that are sensitized to the need for scholarships and general access to programs. Sparta's vision also includes members that will become better self-advocates and be more comfortable with using community services.