The Center for Allied and Unified Sport and Exercise (CAUSE) at Daemen College provides opportunities for people with disabilities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience the camaraderie and sportsmanship that comes with athletics participation. In addition, CAUSE provides a supported venue for caregivers to access athletic-based care, participate in health and wellness programs, or simply experience the joy of watching a loved one compete.CAUSE advances the Project Play focus on youth sports and recreation in WNY by leveraging the resources and expertise of Daemen to increase access for an underserved population of WNY residents.  CAUSE provides sports sampling for people with disabilities, incorporating student and student-athletes for a unified sport atmosphere of inclusion and integration.

The core program of CAUSE are the sport sampling sessions. Individuals sign up for sessions on a weekly basis in order to ensure sessions are filled to capacity.

The program will be expanding its geographic reach this coming academic year with quarterly “CAUSE Days” hosted at partner organizations in high poverty areas of Erie and Niagara counties.  With our support, CAUSE served more than 90 participants and their families in 2018-19. In January 2019, they expanded available programming to weekly two-hour sport sampling sessions on Sundays and Wednesday nights with the capacity to serve 20+ participants at each session.