Welcoming Clubs 2024: A Year of Adventure, Challenges, and Reward
This year marked another adventurous, challenging, and rewarding chapter for the Welcoming Clubs team. Initially, we anticipated the conclusion of both the Welcome to the Game and Active Inclusion Club Mentor Projects in Melbourne due to the discontinuation of critical federal government funding. These initiatives, aimed at supporting children with intellectual disabilities and additional support needs in accessing sport and recreation opportunities, have profoundly impacted local communities since their inception.
From 2020 to June 2024, including the challenging COVID-19 years, these programs:
– Directly supported over 657 children and young people with disabilities.
– Engaged 416 family members, providing them with meaningful benefits.
– Enabled 48 staff and volunteers with disabilities to contribute to program delivery.
– Indirectly benefited over 990 family members through their children’s participation.
The Active Inclusion Clubs Mentor Project facilitated the creation of seven local inclusion programs in partnership with community clubs. In late June, as we began wrapping up these programs, we received unexpected but welcome news: a 12-month extension for Welcome to the Game. We are immensely grateful to our community partners, councils, and clubs for their unwavering support and look forward to continuing this work into the first half of 2025.
Queensland Reactivation
Welcoming Clubs was founded in Queensland in 2016, though recent years have focused more on Victoria and national initiatives. In 2024, we reignited our local Queensland approach through Clubs QLD, supported by a dedicated Queensland Clubs Coordinator. This effort has involved close collaboration with Queensland State Government, the Welcoming Cities team and local stakeholders in Townsville, Toowoomba, and Ipswich
This reactivation underscores our commitment to fostering inclusive sports and recreation opportunities across Queensland communities.
University of Melbourne STARS Anti Racism in Sport
2024 marked the 4th year of a continued alliance with the University of Melbourne STARS project. To date this partnership has supported the delivery of Active Inclusion and Upstander Anti-Racism Training to over 200 community sports clubs across Australia.
In 2025 the partnership will announce the launch of the first ever Train the Trainer Upstander Accreditation Program. This groundbreaking program will endorse the first round of Upstander Trainers for sport and will be delivered through a combination of online modules and in person training. If you are interested in being part of this first training cohort connect with us here
Play Our Way Success
We are thrilled to announce that our application to the Australian Government’s $200 million Play Our Way program was successful! The Play Our Way program was established to promote equitable opportunities for women and girls to benefit from sport at all levels and locations, by addressing the barriers they experience when participating in sport and physical activity.
The project focusses on but is not limited to women aged 30–55 from migrant and minority ethnic backgrounds who have had limited access to sports and physical activity. This includes those who may have lacked exposure to physical literacy or remained inactive due to responsibilities like childcare, injury, or illness.
In April 2025, two place-based, community-led programs will launch in:
– Dandenong
– Hume/Brimbank
Our consortium partnership, which includes eight key partners, is dedicated to increasing access and participation for this group:
– African Women and Families Network
– Preston Mosque and the Islamic Society of Victoria
– Centre for Healing and Justice Through Sport
– cohealth
– Brimbank Council
– Hume City Council
– Greater Dandenong City
– The University of Melbourne – STARS Project
If your organisation is interested in contributing to this 2 year project, please connect with us through the Expression of Interest form here
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