![SportzRulz Australia participants celebrated the opening of the Red Door Community Centre with a Mad Hatters Tea Party last week. Picture by Jonathon Magrath SportzRulz Australia participants celebrated the opening of the Red Door Community Centre with a Mad Hatters Tea Party last week. Picture by Jonathon Magrath](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/189568677/617c65f9-5f5f-481b-bd18-78487c8a8243.JPG/r0_0_4032_3024_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A new disability hub has opened in Epsom, located at the Bendigo Pottery complex.
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A vision of SportzRulz Australia director Pam Dawkins, the aptly-named Red Door Community Centre is a place for people with a disability to come and hang out, learn new skills and participate in activities.
In January 2020 Ms Dawkins inspected the location and found a building with a kitchen, an open central space, a large outdoor space and abandoned butterfly enclosure and miniature petting zoo, which had been untouched for five years.
Now the space has a large dining table, couches, a TV, video game consoles, a crafts corner, a quiet room, and space for community and sensory gardens.
Programs running at the centre include sport, art, music, gardening and cooking.
Making the space their own
Ms Dawkins said the space was flexible and able to be tailored to whatever the participants wanted and needed.
"What we've found is as the participants come in, they bring in what they want," she said.
"We don't just say 'yes, here's the space', it's 'come and have a look, what do you see, or want it to be?' A space that works for them. It's so important they feel a part of it."
There are 60 participants who use the centre, which is funded by the NDIS.
Ms Dawkins founded SportzRulz Australia as a sports and coaching program for schools, before moving on to a disability organisation that eventually closed down.
"I decided to go out my own and it's just grown from there," she said.
"My philosophy is based on sport philosophies; as an individual you can achieve, but as a team or a group the sky's the limit."
A cause for celebration
The Red Door Community Centre held its official opening last week with a Mad Hatters' Tea Party.
Ms Dawkins said it was fantastic to see everyone coming together at the centre for the first time.
"With COVID shutting us down, there wasn't that opportunity to get a group together, they never saw the warmth it can bring," she said.
"We're seeing now people are actually joining in together," she said. "The teenagers are talking to the older participants. There's no barriers, everyone's able to do it."
There are plenty of more developments coming from SportzRulz Australia, including a centre opening in Bridgewater and a mobile centre being built from an old double horse float, allowing the service to transport to wherever it's needed.
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