Adaptive Sports and Recreation

Medical Reviewer: Alice Krauss, M.Ed.,OTR/L
Last Updated: September 15, 2021

Brooks Rehabilitation offers one of the most comprehensive and diverse adaptive sports and recreation programs in the country. We believe that everyone in our community should have access to the health-promoting, life-enhancing benefits of participation in sport and recreation.

Adaptive Sports and Recreation is an innovative health promotion program that uses sports and recreation to facilitate lifelong health, well-being and quality of life for individuals of all ages and abilities living with disability in our community and beyond.

Our program offers the opportunity to participate in activities that provide social connection and physical activity, the two most important elements of a healthy lifestyle. Program participants may enjoy recreational or competitive team and individual sports and recreational activities at no charge with all equipment, coaching and limited bus transportation provided by Brooks.

Get involved with the most comprehensive adaptive sports and recreation program in the country. Our motto is Fun, Fitness and Friendship!

Benefits of Adaptive Sports and Recreation

There are so many benefits to participating in adaptive sports and recreation; it’s difficult to name them all! A few of the highlighted benefits include:

  • Increased quality of daily life
  • Increased sense of belonging to a community /decreased loneliness
  • Expanded social support system
  • Friendship/social connection/ meaningful connections with new friends
  • Improved relationships with family and friends
  • Caregiver support
  • Increased resilience for you and your caregivers
  • Improved physical health to include strength, endurance, balance and coordination
  • Enhanced recovery of physical and cognitive skills
  • Improved emotional health to include reduced anxiety, depression and negative thinking
  • Reduced reliance in substances
  • Increased independence in daily activities
  • Increased self-efficacy
  • Increased participation in the community
  • Development of a positive identify
  • Increased knowledge and skills
  • Learn/master new ways of accomplishing things new ways of living more effectively with a disability
  • Peer Mentoring
  • Enhanced employability
  • Increased self-advocacy skills
  • Increased access to resources
  • Increased self esteem
  • Increased self confidence

Types of adaptive sports

Our expert staff will adapt the activity to your unique abilities to enable your participation. We also provide limited transportation on our busses to/from our activities. We recognize that disability affects family and friends, so we invite them to participate in our activities alongside their loved one.

There are numerous sports and recreational activities provided by Brooks. They include:

  • Archery
  • Billiards
  • Boccia
  • Bowling
  • Cycling
  • Dance
  • Fishing
  • Golf
  • Kayaking
  • Mindfulness based yoga
  • Movie Nights
  • Power Soccer
  • Rowing
  • Surfing
  • Trap Shooting
  • Water skiing
  • Wheelchair Basketball
  • Wheelchair Rugby

What makes it adaptive?

Brooks Adaptive Sports and Recreation adapts both the equipment and the technique to the unique abilities of each individual to optimize safety, comfort, performance and pleasure.

Examples of this include:

  • The provision of adaptive equipment as simple as a chest strap to stabilize someone in a sport wheelchair
  • A Velcro glove to secure a hand with a weak grip to a golf club
  • Something as complex as a sip and puff power wheelchair equipped with a special chip to maximize speed and agility, while enabling someone with total paralysis to enjoy the sport of power soccer

Our team of experts uses its collective knowledge and creativity to overcome barriers and enable individuals to participate in their activities of choice.

Before you begin

Although you do not need a doctor’s order to participate in our program, we do recommend you discuss your participation in our program with your doctor if you have not recently been physically active or have had a recent change in a health condition. A sudden or drastic change in activity can cause unwanted complications involving injury, pain or undue stress on the heart. These complications can be avoided by following doctor’s orders, starting slowly, increasing your activity level gradually, and following all program safety guidelines.

How to get involved

Check us out on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and find our complete calendar of weekly activities and special events on our official Brooks Adaptive Sports and Recreation website. You may reach us at email or call us directly at (904) 345-7314.

Whether you are interested in meeting new friends, learning a new skill, getting in shape or training for the Paralympics, we are here for you!

Medical Reviewer

Alice Krauss, M.Ed.,OTR/L

Manager of Adaptive Sports and Recreation Program
In 1982, Alice Krauss graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelors Degree in Occupational Therapy. She went on to receive her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of North Florida in 1992. She has worked with Brooks Rehabilitation as an occupational therapist for the past 38 years, working as a clinician for fourteen years, manager of the Occupational Therapy Department for the next 10 years before the launch of the community based Adaptive Sports and Recreation program in 2007. Alice is a passionate occupational therapist who believes in the transformative power of participation in personally meaningful daily activities to enhance health, well-being and quality of life. Alice received the 2009 Jack Gillrup Community Leader Award, in 2011 was selected as a Healthcare Hero by the Jacksonville Business Journal and a Brooks Star in 2012. The ASRP received the Active Leisure for Life Award in 2010.
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