Hi, I am Madison Garland the new Boccia Development Officer for Scottish Disability Sport (SDS). My role is nationwide with my office based at SDS headquarters in Edinburgh. I am looking forward to becoming part of the SDS team, as well as getting to know the boccia community. I am excited about the prospect of developing the sport further and increasing the number of people playing across the country.
Prior to working with SDS I achieved my Sports Development and Coaching degree at Dundee University, and soon after, gained my first role as the National Disability Development Officer and the East Female Development Officer at Cricket Scotland (CS). My role at CS consisted of developing female cricketers and engaging and identifying new players via the fantastic engagement programmes that had been set up. I also assisted with the set up of the Disability Cricket section of the SGB, helping raise the profile of not only disability cricket, but of disability sport. I achieved this through several vehicles but one of the most successful was raising awareness of the visually impaired game using high-profile events, such as our exhibition match between the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) and the Glasgow City Councillors. This event profiled the sport politically as well as amongst the visually impaired community. I hope to use my previous experiences to increase the profile of boccia in a similar way.
Whilst I am not coming from a background in the sport of boccia, I am really looking forward to learning more about the sport and increasing my knowledge further. I have gained a lot of sports development experience in disability sport, and female participation, from my work at Cricket Scotland and this will benefit me going forward.
I’ll be getting out and about to meet the boccia community in due course but in the meantime I can be contacted on madison.garland@scottishdisabilitysport.com.