Media Release - 2013 Sports Without Borders Grassroots Sports Conference

MEDIA RELEASE

01/05/13

What: 2013 Sports Without Borders Conference – Innovation and Integrity.

Where: Moonee Valley Function Centre

Date: Friday May 3, 2013

Media opportunity: Senator Kate Lundy (Minister for Sport) available for interview between 10:45am – 11:05am.

The Test, the Open, the Grand Final – these events structure our year as much as the big religious festivals. Questions about Bradman turn up in citizenship exams. In this country sport means something.  We’ve spent more on the Olympics than on the National Broadband network. From the top down to the grassroots, we use sports to express our values. Those values have to come from all of us and speak to all of us. They have to change with the times.

Sport and parochialism are inseparable in Australia. More then any other country, sport defines who we are, our values and where we are going.

The 2013 Sports Without Borders/Our Community national grassroots sports conference (May 3, 2013, Moonee Valley Racecourse) will question whether we who facilitate sports: administrators, clubs, volunteers and National Sporting Organisation’s (NSO’s), coaches, SSOs, are being innovative enough to change with the times.

The conference will also address the widely held assumption that grassroots sports clubs are acting in a way that upholds the integrity of sport and its community.

The new Chair of the Australian Sports Commission John Wylie has announced mandatory reforms or proposals on innovation and governance. The ‘Great Debate’ a new item at the conference, will delve into this, debating the topic  “Australian sporting groups are letting the team down with ineffective financial and organizational

management and poor engagement practices.” Pitting Steve Horvat (Melbourne Knights FC board) and Rita Panahi (media commentator and SEN host) against two surprise (secret) debaters, and facilitated by Francis Leach (ABC Grandstand).

The conference teams many high profile keynote speakers and MCS, including, Senator Kate Lundy (Minister for Sport, The Hon. Kristina Keneally (CEO of Basketball Australia) and Richard Ings (former head of ASDA), Patrick Skene (Red Elephant) and Josh Vanderloo (AFL) and futurist Steve Tighe, as well as our old friends Paul Kennedy and Brett de Hoedt.

The conference will also offer best practice workshops for participants.

1. Get more (and better) volunteers - Josh Vanderloo (Community Participation Manager, AFL).
2. Get more members - Brett de Hoedt (Founder and Mayor, Hootville).
3. Innovation - Patrick Skene (Director of Sport and Media, Red Elephant Projects)
4. The Integrity of Sport - Richard Ings (former head of ASDA).

Key takeaways:

• In the digital age, how do you recruit and retain your volunteers?

• In a spectator-led age, how do you develop systems to engage members?

• What has to change before under-represented groups – women, people with disabilities, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, gay and lesbian people and Indigenous Australians – see your club as relevant to their lives?

• What partnerships are becoming possible with emerging stakeholders?

• Marketing: not just a good idea, it’s the game.

• Learn from the professionals how to innovate – it’ll push you ahead of the pack.

For more information and for registration: http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/swb2013

Media Enquiries: tom.demetriou@sportswithoutborders.org, 0400002953

Australian chance: Asylum seeker could play in the Ashes

Fawad Ahmed has been hailed as the best leg-spinner to play first-class cricket in Australia since Shane Warne.  He has played only 11 games, but his recent performances have caught the eye of Australian selectors.

Ahmed, an asylum seeker from Pakistan who arrived in 2010, was working in a warehouse when he gained his permanent residency on January 29, 2013.

Click to read more ...

2013 Sports Without Borders National Grassroots Sports Conference

Innovation in community sport: Learn How, Now! 

The essential conference for every grassroots sporting group, administrator and community leader in local communities and local government.

Tickets here

Australian nationalism, for better and for worse, is inseparable from our love of sport. 

The Tests, the Cup, the Open, the Grand Final – these events structure our year as much as the big religious festivals. Questions about Bradman turn up in citizenship exams. We’ve spent more on the Olympics than on the National Broadband Network. In this country, sports mean something. 

From the top right down to the grassroots, we use sports to express our values. Those values have to come from all of us and speak to all of us. They have to change with the times. 

We need to factor in 21st Century views of gender equality and cultural inclusion. We need to guard against old-fashioned myths and prejudices. We need to continually innovate to survive. 

This conference will illuminate how sports are changing, how sports clubs are innovating, and how sports administrators, players, observers and volunteers can help shape the outcomes. 

Key takeaways: 

• In the digital age, how do you recruit and retain your volunteers? 

• In a spectator-led age, how do you develop systems to engage members? 

• What has to change before under-represented groups – women, people with disabilities, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, gay and lesbian people and Indigenous Australians – see your club as relevant to their lives? 

• What partnerships are becoming possible with emerging stakeholders? 

• Marketing: not just a good idea, it’s the game. 

• Learn from the professionals how to innovate – it’ll push you ahead of the pack. 

Why should I attend? 

The 2013 Sports Without Borders Conference brings together the complete picture – sportspeople, club officials, volunteers, policymakers, government funders, government and local government workers, peak bodies, sports administrators and sports media. 

If you’re from any of these groups, this conference is about you. 

Learn the facts, hear the stories, and find out about best practice sports solutions. Your club, and your community, depend on it. 

Seasons Greetings 2012

SEASONS GREETINGS 2012 

2012 has been a big but successful year for Sports Without Borders. We have continued facilitating important programs in the community and deepened our engagement and consultation with communities across Victoria. Our focus has remained the same – innovation, engagement and leadership.

We’d like to take this opportunity to say a very big thank you to everyone who has supported Sports Without Borders over 2012. Pease enjoy these highlights from the year.

2012 Conference

In June, the second annual SWB Conference saw the Australia-wide sports sector come to Melbourne to hear from the best and share their own experiences. Our conference partners and sponsors were Our Community, Australian Multicultural Foundation, Australian Sports Commission, Victorian government, FinPa Australia and Sporting Pulse. Excitingly, the conference was the springboard for the We’re All On The Same Team (WOATST) ad campaign, which was launched by Minister for Sport, Senator Kate Lundy.  This message is not only the motivation for our ongoing work, also but provided an inspiring platform to start the day.

Speakers such as the Honourable Kate Lundy, Federal Minsiter for Sport, the Honourable Hugh Delahunty MP, Victorian Minister for Sport, Clem Rodney, Susan Crow, Francis Leach, Patrick Moriarty, Brett de Hoedt, our own James Demetriou and Athalia Zwartz and more discussed the importance of sport to communities in Australia, female, indigenous and multicultural sport participation and marketing strategies for clubs and organisations.

More information

Next years’ program has already been developed. If you wish to attend please do not hesitate to express your early interest.

Contact

WAOTST

SWB was lucky enough to work with some of Australia’s most successful and diverse sportspeople including Steve Moneghetti, John Aloisi, Liz Cambage, Robert Dipierdomenico, Liz Ellis, Chris Johnson, Andrew Gaze and Lydia Lassila to create an ad campaign, ‘We’re all on the same team,’ which will air on SBS and various social media channels between December 2012 - May 2013. Our partners in this project are ProjectProject and Satchel Media.

The ad “We’re All on the Same Team”

More information

Scholarships Programme

As part of this program young people from each LGA participated in leadership and sports management training; our Executive Director, Athalia Zwartz facilitated workshops together with the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) to develop the skills, capacity and confidence of young leaders. These young leaders were then supported in developing and organising a sports event for their community where applications for SWB Sports Scholarships were explained and distributed.

The scholarships supported young boys and girls to be involved in soccer, basketball, netball, AFL, rugby, tennis, swimming, athletics, cycling, boxing, taekwondo and more. Stories of some of the young people we sponsored can be found on our website.

If you would like to support our Sports Without Borders Scholarship programme which supports young people to be involved in sport please Give Now. http://www.givenow.com.au/sportswithoutborders

Welcome to Australia – the role of sport.

Another exciting program that worked with families and then supported young people into sports clubs was the Welcome to Australia project funded by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Thank you to all our partners: Migrant Information Centre, New Hope, Australian Sports Commission, Centre for Multicultural Youth and the Eastern and Central African Communities of Victoria. The project brought together families, local clubs and community members to talk about sport and the benefits of sport for all and then supported over sixty young people in joining local clubs in different sporting codes.

Carlton Community Sports Carnival

As in past years, a big part of SWB’s year was focused on local community and inclusion. This is a theme close to our heart and with the support of multiple partners we undertook the Carlton Community Sports Carnivals held in March and November.These carnivals were organised by  Carlton’s local young leaders and Melbourne University Student Ambassadorial Leadership Program volunteers, supported by SWB, Drummond St Services and MEPO and funded by City of Melbourne.  Thank you to the Victorian Multicultural Commision for their contribution to building the sustainability through sports scholarship funding for young boys and girls in the community to continue participating in organised sport.

More information

Heart of Carlton

Another exciting programme for the residents of Carlton was the Heart of Carlton project, a partnership between SWB, Carlton Primary School and Melbourne Heart funded by the City of Melbourne’s ‘Opportunities for Carlton’ initiative. The University of Melbourne is also conducting an evaluation of the project to assist with future projects in this field.

More information

SWB N.S.W.

This year was the kick-off for SWB N.S.W., led by Marielle Latour in Sydney. The year started with a workshop in Fairfield to introduce SWB to the community and provide opportunities for local partnerships and also the establishment of our scholarship programme. The session focused on true SWB principles of collaboration and alliance and explored and developed strategies on how to work together to get more young people involved in sport. In addition, the ‘Social Inclusion Through Sports’ project was successfully run with the Fairfield and Auburn Migrant Resource Centres as partners. The project mirrored our Victorian sports scholarships program and facilitated young people from CALD backgrounds’ involvement in sport.

More information

New Partnerships

As we farewell 2012 we look forward to 2013, in particular the opportunity for successful and meaningful partnerships. We have recently developed a community partnership with the Telco Together Foundation.. Telco Together is a registered charity that brings together the telecommunications industry in support of disadvantaged communities; they have chosen SWB as their partner for promoting social inclusion. Members of the foundation include Optus, Vodafone, Dodo, Globe Telecom and many more and we are enormously excited to be a part of this great initiative.

‘Let’s all Play’

We are also looking forward to continuing our work in the City of Monash with phase 2 of the ‘Let’s All Play’ project undertaken with Monash City Council, South Oakleigh Secondary College and Wellington Secondary College.  Continuing on from our involvement with these partners in 2012, SWB will offer leadership training and engagement opportunities to students and work with local sporting clubs and organisations. We are very excited to be committed to this ongoing project in the next two years.

More information

To all our staff, our auspicing partner Australian Multicultural Foundation (AMF) and Hass Dellal, thank you. And thanks to you, for your support over 2012. Seasons Greetings!

James Demetriou                                                 Athalia Zwartz                                      

Chair                                                                  Executive Director
Sports Without Borders                                        Sports Without Borders                                                

Heart of Carlton programme runs in local Primary School

Over two months, the kids from Carlton Primary School are in for a treat as they participate in the ‘Heart of Carlton’ project run by Melbourne Heart Football Club and Sports Without Borders (SWB).

Click to read more ...