Bonus Session! | 2026 Winter Club Development Series

We’re excited to share a bonus session for the 2026 Winter Club Development Series!

International Mixed Ability Sports (IMAS) joins us on Monday, April 20th at 12:00 pm, to present ‘Changing the World by Changing your Club’ – an informal lunch session where 5 experts with lived experience of autism and disability share how rugby has positively changed their lives and the people around them. The speakers will be sharing how you can implement small changes in your club to help keep rugby inclusive for all.

Speakers

Mark Goodwin Martino Corazza Ella Sky Elliot Smith Jayde Powell

Mark Goodwin

Co-founder of IMAS

A latecomer to sport and activity, Mark worked in social care supporting adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism before qualifying as a teacher.

In 2012 he supported one of his students to set up England’s first Mixed Ability rugby team and somehow fell into the trap of becoming a player. Realising that this mix of players, based in grassroots rugby clubs could be replicated in a much wider arena Mark went on to co-found International Mixed Ability Sports.

Mark has dedicated almost two decades to changing society through community-level sports, although rugby remains his first love. His stated ambition is “to make Mixed Ability sports normal across the globe so that I don’t have to ever work again.”

Martino Corazza

Co-founder of IMAS

Martino is the Co-founder and Director of International Mixed Ability Sports. He holds a degree in History from the University of Turin, a MA in Disability Studies from the University of Leeds and he is currently undertaking a PhD in Sport Development and Social Science at the Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University.

Professionally, his background is rooted in education, sport, and social activism, having worked as a specialist tutor with disabled people since 2008. His passion for non-formal education, social justice, and international cooperation, combined with a 20- year-long career in playing and coaching rugby, led to creation of IMAS and the Mixed Ability movement, which is now operating in more than 30 countries.

Ella Sky

IMAS Trainer

Ella is her mid-40s, she is autistic. Ella is a dedicated leader in inclusive sport. She is an IMAS Trainer, bringing both professional expertise and valuable lived experience to her role, and has also is also a non-executive director.

Ella has been a key member of Yeovil Mixed Ability Rugby since its formation in 2020, where she was first introduced to Mixed Ability sport and the work of IMAS. Since then, she has gone on to represent other Mixed Ability women’s teams, including Worcester and Ledbury.

In 2023, Ella was selected as one of the first women to play for the Mixed Ability Rugby Invitationals (MARIs). Last year she was invited to represent Worcester Mixed Ability Women’s team at the International Mixed Ability Rugby Tournament (IMART).

Ella is deeply committed to promoting inclusivity in sport and is passionate about growing Mixed Ability locally, nationally, and internationally.

Elliot Smith

Mixed Ability Sport Facilitator

Elliot is 26 years old, has Autism and ADHD and currently works as a Mixed Ability Sports Facilitator in Ontario, Canada, as well as being a Physical Fitness and Literacy Associate at the Abilities Centre in Whitby, Ontario.

Elliot is currently a member of the Mixed Ability Dragonboating Team in Pickering, Ontario, as well as the Rainbow Griffins Rugby team in Toronto, Ontario. He has written two children’s books about his lived experience playing on these teams, called Mateo’s Mixed Ability Match and Elliot’s Excellent MARIs Match. He has appeared on several news outlets promoting and speaking about these opportunities. He also recently finished having a documentary produced about his rugby life called Advantage Gained, available at A New Story.

Elliot has been on 3 international tours now, playing rugby for the Oshawa Vikings at IMART in Ireland and Spain, as well as being selected to represent Canada as a MARI in Belfast.

Jayde Powell

Mixed Ability Rugby Player

Jayde Powell is living her best life since she got involved with Mixed Ability Sport. She enjoys playing alongside people of all abilities. Jayde is currently on a Mixed Ability Rugby team with the Oshawa Vikings where she was the first Canadian Women’s team to enter the IMART World Cup this past year. As a result of her rugby experience, she has secured a part time job as a Daycare Assistant and continues to do public speaking about her lived experience in various schools, along with Elliot, with respect to Mixed Ability Sport. Jayde is also a MA athlete for dragonboating and curling. Her goal is through Mixed Ability Sports to continue to break down barriers for people with disabilities.

Rugby Ontario

A: Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, 875 Morningside Ave, Toronto, ON M1C 0C7

P: (647) 560-4790

E: info@rugbyontario.com

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Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that our game is played across the Province of Ontario on the ancestral and unceded territories of Inuit, Metis and First Nations peoples. We honour, recognize, and respect all Indigenous Peoples as the traditional stewards of the lands on which we participate in the sport of rugby. As visitors to these lands we also acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples long standing presence in this territory, and acknowledge this recognition is key in moving towards reconciliation.

Bonus Session! | 2026 Winter Club Development Series

Speakers

Rugby Ontario

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Land Acknowledgement

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