The ASC celebrated its ten-year partnership with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation in Sydney last month. Laureus is an international apolitical organisation that uses the positive influence of sport to address social challenges.

To celebrate the partnership, Laureus ambassadors — including double Olympic gold medal winner Edwin Moses, seven-time world surfing champion Layne Beachley and 2000 Olympic gold medallist Simon Whitfield — participated in an hour-long traditional Indigenous games and basketball clinic with children from the ASC’s Active After-school Communities program at King George V Recreation Centre in Sydney.

It was an opportunity to gain further insight into the three-year (2009–11) evidence-based empirical research project the ASC is currently undertaking, supported by the Laureus Foundation, with the University of Queensland and Surfing Australia. The research is the first of its kind to specifically measure the impact of sporting programs and initiatives in targeted Indigenous communities across Australia.

Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Director Ned Wills said the organisation was proud to support the Indigenous Sport program’s important empirical research into the benefits of sport and believes it will deliver valuable evidence of the potential to use sport as a tool for social change in Australian Indigenous communities.