Sport North East receives $420,000 funding boost

The Victorian government has provided $420,000 to help Wangaratta-based Sport North East support local sport and recreation clubs over the next two years. Treasurer and MP for Northern Victoria, Jaclyn Symes, said the funding through the government's Together More Active Program aims to help improve sport sector capability and increase inclusive participation. Sport North East team leader Dhanur Sharma said the organisation was pleased to receive the funding to bolster support for local clubs and groups. "It was a team effort in bringing what we had planned in terms of putting through the application," he said, noting the funding will support club development, inclusion and participation. "This essentially subsidies our services for clubs... predominantly, it would be something that the clubs can avail for free." Mr Sharma said the funding will support their efforts to "build the capacity and capability of local sporting and active recreation clubs", setting them up for a more sustainable future. "This involves assisting local sport and active recreation clubs, whatever they may be facing in terms of issues, gaps and opportunities," he said. "So that includes one-on-one support wherein clubs can actively reach out to us and ask for help. "There's also workshops and participation programs that we can do with them on come and try days, which is part of club development but less tailored than individual support." The second major area is inclusivity, which Mr Sharma said has a focus on enabling people with disability, people of multicultural communities, women, and other demographics that face societal barriers to participate in sport and active recreation. "We're working with clubs, council and community organisations to enable participation opportunities for those groups," he said. One example of this was the recent Respect in Sport Workshops they conducted with council support, which aimed to bring awareness to and promote inclusion of women and girls in sport. "We invited clubs to come along and hear what barriers women and girls are facing at clubs, what people are doing well, what areas for improvement may be," Mr Sharma said. "This is a program tailored for clubs to make sure they are being inclusive of women and girls in any way they can." Mr Sharma said advocacy and consultancy work is also important as part of delivering these outcomes. "Being on local committees, being on local health and wellbeing partnerships is where we get information and local insights into what's working and what's not.... and where there are opportunities to work together to achieve certain mutual outcomes," he said. Ms Symes said this program draws on the power of sport making a difference; by helping organisations build safe, inclusive, and resilient environments that encourage participation and support volunteer skills development. “Sport and active recreation offer long lasting benefits for people’s health and wellbeing," she said. "That’s why we are supporting more people in Northern Victoria to get involved.” Along with Sport North East's $420,000 in funding, Valley Sport in Shepparton will receive $480,000 and Mallee Sports Assembly Inc in Mildura will receive $420,000.

Sport North East receives $420,000 funding boost

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