Who are We?

At Lakers we support  adults and children with intellectual disabilities. We support our members to grow, learn and enhance their personal skills and confidence through a range of sports and social activities including; football, basketball, cooking, art, skiing, computer literacy, dancing and much more. We run over 60 activities a week for our 400 members, our centre is open 6 days a week, and is supported by over 160 volunteers.


Mission Statement

Lakers exist to serve our members on the basis of respect and inclusion, to work with them in enhancing their unique talents, to enable them to participate in sport, social activities, recreation and development, and to work alongside them in promoting their full participation in the wider community. We are dedicated to building teamwork, self-esteem and confidence, and to ensuring the maximum participation and involvement of the families of our members.

Click Here to Read Our Lakers Constitution

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Aims and objectives of our club.

  • The overall aim of Lakers is to enable children and adults with an intellectual disability to develop their innate skills and self-esteem in an environment which is inclusive and supportive.
  • The primary objective of Lakers is to provide opportunities to people with an intellectual disability to develop their skills, co-ordination and ultimately their self-esteem through the medium of their participation in sporting, social, recreational and developmental activities according to their abilities.
  • We also seek to provide a strong, supportive network for parents, families and friends of people with an intellectual disability as a vital resource in facing the challenges they inevitably face.
  • We seek to create opportunities for our members to participate in the wider community to the full extent of their abilities.

Our History

Lakers Sports and Recreational Club was founded in 1989 by a group of parents in Bray who had children with an intellectual disability and who saw a real need to fill a social, sporting and developmental gap. There was nowhere for parents and children to socialise or gain support outside of service hours. Lakers started as the name suggests, a basketball club  associated with the Special Olympics and then grew to 4 sporting activities. Parents and children loved it but it was obvious there were so many other families missing out as their children were not interested in just sport, and so Lakers grew. The families rallied the community together to fundraise for Lakers, applied for grants, and pushed Lakers into the spotlight creating a strong foundation for Lakers to become a much bigger club employing a small group of staff and instructors.

From just 4 activities, 30 years later Lakers is proud to offer to offer over 60 activities per week for our members aged 5 to 70 years old, offering membership throughout Wicklow and South Dublin.

About Our History