Spotlight: BORP
Our final Spotlight article highlighting organizations promoting inclusive fitness, features the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program, also known as BORP, an organization in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides a wide variety of fitness options to people with a wide variety of abilities. We spoke with Leo Siecienski, BORP Program Manager, about the organization.
How did BORP get started?
Our organization is almost 45 years old now. It was started by Susan Seagull, a student at UC Berkeley. She sustained an injury that resulted in paraplegia. While at UC Berkeley she signed up for a swim class and was told she could not take the class. So, she and a group of others got together to develop their own program. Over the years, the program has evolved and now includes a variety of sports options. Currently, our organization services about 200 people per year, but we have a core of about 80 people that come weekly or biweekly. Including family members, our emails go out to about 400 people.
Tell us what BORP specifically offers the community.
We do a lot of outreach in our community. We have a fitness studio in the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley. To give a little background about the studio, Ed Roberts contracted polio in the 1950s which resulted in long-term limitation with his mobility. He was a great advocate for people with disabilities, for example promoting the importance of curb cuts in sidewalks. The Ed Roberts Campus has space to house different non-profit organizations.
Some programs offered by BORP include youth sports, adult sports, power soccer, goalball, hiking trips, adventure excursions, a birding program, and wheelchair basketball.
We offer some transportation, which is very important to us, because not everyone has a vehicle, and transportation to our events can be difficult for some. We are trialing a pilot program with the cities of Oakland and San Francisco, funded by Lyft.
We have a website called Access Northern California which is sort of a clearinghouse for activities and places to stay for people with accessible needs. Accessibility can be tricky sometimes when planning a trip, so people can use the website to help find a place to stay that meets their needs.
We have a great storage space for bikes of all types. Most of our bikes can even become tandem bikes so caregivers can ride with their loved ones. We have handcycles, recumbent bikes, upright handcycles, low handcycles, foot trikes and therapeutic trikes. We can even connect 3 or 4 bikes, for example with 1 pilot and 3 people with visual impairment can ride together. About 50% of our bikes are donated, new or used, and the other 50% come out of our funds. We look to see which specific bikes we might need more of depending on the needs of the people we serve.
BORP works very hard to stay connected with the bay area community in a variety of ways and is very forward-thinking in its approach to providing innovative services. There is no static version of what we do because people are always showing us new things and we are always evolving to what people are looking to do. We seek funding from various places in order to provide the wide range of opportunities we offer. We are constantly looking for ways to get new technology for the people we serve.
How was your organization affected by the events of the past year?
We made sure we were up to date on what our county and city would allow us to do and figured out what would work best for us. We recognized that this was the first time local governments and organizations had to come up with these types of guidelines and nobody really knew exactly what to do at first. We were straightforward with our communication with members. We worked hard to figure out how to tell folks we are minimizing their risk as much as possible.
With COVID-19 we needed to provide activities online and since then we have seen our participation numbers go through the roof. Right now our online fitness classes, which are directly out of our fitness studio in the Ed Roberts Campus, are doing really well. Cycling has been a great activity to continue because it’s outside and we can minimize how close people are to each other.
In January 2020, we also started a program with the Oakland Unified School District to help over 130 students in their classrooms at their schools and with adaptive PE teachers. The program was discontinued due to COVID-19, but we are hoping to start it up again when we are able.
COVID-19 was the hardest on sports teams. The youth basketball team usually travels to other states for tournaments and competes on a high level. The kids are all spread out across the area, so it’s hard for them because they are not able to see their teammates in their neighborhoods and they miss the time with their teammates. Teams have been doing virtual workouts regularly and have virtual social meet-ups, but they are really missing basketball.
What changes have been implemented over the past year that you are likely to keep moving forward?
We moved to a reservation system so folks can ride by appointment only and it’s so helpful. With the number of people we reach out to and service it is helpful to have the reservations in place ahead of time. We receive several first-time questions every week asking about our programs. With the appointment system, I can do an intake and get a better sense of the person’s level of mobility and goals and we can set up the appropriate amount of time and support for that person.
Tell us a little more about your pilot program with Lyft and the cities of San Francisco and Oakland.
When someone has a disability, it can take a lot of effort to get to where their activity is when using public transportation. So we are working with Lyft to figure out a way to make public transportation easier for people with disabilities.
What are some things you have learned as Program Manager?
The first is how important is it to make a personal connection with people. People really want a call or want to see you in person. We set up a phone line for people with visual impairment or people that prefer phone calls over other technology. We can call and chat with them instead. We make an effort to always call people back when they leave voice messages.
Secondly, is how our work helps to open doors to new exercises and activities for people. Because we are always trialing new technology and innovative services, we are a reference for many people who are attempting things for the first time. For example, a person with Cerebral Palsy wanted to do cycling so we introduced pedals with calf supports and they had never experienced that before. Our cycling center is connected to a path that goes 2.5 miles around a lake. In order to access more riding, she required modifications to her cycle, so we assisted her by writing a recommendation so she could work with the Kelly Brush Foundation to get an electric-assist bike.
Do you have any suggestions for someone looking to start or join an inclusive exercise group?
Feeling comfortable that your needs can be met by the organization is important. People of all ability levels should be welcomed and able to participate safely.
How does BORP promoted inclusion in fitness?
Membership in our program is donation-based, and we ask participants to give whatever they can. All membership donations cover basic repair costs, but the bigger cycling center budget is funded by grants and larger donors. Payments are made online and not at the cycling center because we want to just focus on riding when they come to the center and not have cost be an issue with people participating.
We feel BORP is a place you can go where you are accepted no matter who you are. Anyone who steps a foot near our center is welcome. We want people to realize right away that they know they do belong.
Andrew Ekelem and his dog, Amber, out for a ride in the Bay Area.
Andrew Ekelem, Chief Product Officer at Evolution Devices has personal experience participating in activities hosted by the Bay Area Recreational Outreach Program (BORP). He reunited with them after moving back to Berkeley, CA. BORP is a non-profit organization that provides a breadth of adaptive physical activity opportunities. Andrew enjoys taking Amber for a handcycle ride around the Berkeley Aquatic Park and along the Bay Area bike paths. The BORP cycling center has made admirable efforts to stay open and safe throughout the pandemic.
