Improving Disability Access to Parks & Green Spaces

Green space, park access, and trees

Central LA South LA West LA San Fernando Valley South Bay Long Beach County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Members of the disabled community are currently unable to access all of the experiences, activities, and programs occurring at green spaces and parks around Los Angeles. The lack of dedicated programs and opportunities specifically for people living with disabilities denies our community full access to parks. For instance, at a local park in Los Angeles, it is easy for an able-bodied individual to join in a pickup basketball game, challenge someone to a pickleball match, or find a new trail for a hike. However, it is significantly harder for a member of our community to find similar spontaneous opportunities for adaptive recreation.
As a result, wide-spread, free adaptive sports and recreational opportunities are essential in Los Angeles. Having free adaptive programs such as wheelchair basketball, wheelchair pickleball, and adaptive hiking can provide members of the disabled community with the opportunity to fully experience the green spaces and parks located around the city.

Angel City Sports (ACS) will use funding from LA 2050 to maintain and expand our adaptive sports and recreation programs.
Currently, ACS operates 7 monthly programs and 3 annual premier events in LA County. Our monthly programs include clinics in wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, adaptive hiking, and more. Our annual Premier Events include the Angel City Games, Youth Weekend, and Courage Weekend. Across all programs, ACS directly serves over 1000 people each year. All programs are free of charge and open to the public regardless of disability status. By partnering with public and private facilities around Los Angeles, ACS ensures that people living with physical disabilities are able to fully access and appreciate parks and green spaces.
With funding from LA 2050, ACS will continue to expand these programs in size and frequency across Los Angeles County. By 2028, we aim to have doubled our monthly programs in Los Angeles and seen a 100% increase in attendance at our Premier Events. Our events are often located in parks and green spaces and allow people from our community to join and fully utilize these areas. For instance, people living with paralysis may be able to play in an wheelchair basketball game or participate in a hike using our Freedom Trax equipment. Or someone with a visual impairment may be able to play soccer or learn tennis. Without our programs, our community would not have the same opportunity to utilize parks and green spaces.

At Angel City Sports, we are guided by our four-year strategic plan, which can be found on our website. By 2028, when the Paralympics are hosted in our backyard, we plan to have expanded from 7 regular programs to 14 in Los Angeles and grown our attendance at Premier events by over 100%.
By the time the Paralympics occur, we aim to provide our adaptive sporting programs within a 30-minute drive of everyone who wants to try adaptive sports in Los Angeles County. Our ambitious scaling efforts will ensure that Angel City Sports and Los Angeles County will be viewed as an international hotspot for adaptive sports in 2028 and beyond.
There are no other organizations in Los Angeles which consistently offer the scale and quality of programs that ACS does. By growing over the next few years, we aim to completely rewrite how our county views disability and empower our community through sport. With the Paralympics coming to LA soon, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to affect change.