Kids get active with Indigenous ambassadors
Recently Sydney Swans player and dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes helped to deliver a sports clinic at Nagle Park in Maroubra to promote the benefits of getting physically active to indigenous children. The clinic involved a range of sporting activities, a healthy morning tea and a discussion about Goodes sporting journey.
Adam Goodes, along with NRL Brisbane Bronco Sam Thaiday, Olympic sprinter Patrick Johnson and netballer Bianca Franklin, is an Ambassador for the Australian Sports Commission’s (ASC) Indigenous Sport Program (ISP).
This is the first step that Goodes, and three other high profile Indigenous sporting stars, will take with the Australian Sports Commission to continue to support better sporting opportunities for Indigenous Australians, particularly children.
Goodes, Thaiday, Johnson and Franklin are working with the ASC to encourage greater Indigenous participation in sport at all levels. Goodes is keen to demonstrate the importance of inspiring young Indigenous children to participate in sport and understand the positive impact sport can have on them and their communities.
‘Indigenous Australians have given this country a rich legacy of achievement on the international sporting stage but the challenge is to continue to improve the opportunities for all Indigenous Australians to participate in sport at all levels,’ Goodes said.
‘Kids need to know what’s out there and what they can do to get involved in sport. By getting involved, Indigenous Australians have an opportunity to experience all the added benefits of playing sport, including improved health and social wellbeing.’
The ASC delivers a number of broad and inclusive programs to improve the participation of Indigenous people in organised sport and physical activity.
ASC sporting programs for indigenous people include the National Talent Identification and Development program, the Active After-school Communities Program, Sport Leadership Grants for Women, the Sports Ability program for Indigenous Australians with a disability, a range of traditional Indigenous games resources and specific cross-cultural awareness training packages.
The Australian Sports Commission in a partnership State/Territory Departments of Sport and Recreation sees a national network of Indigenous Sport Development Officers (ISDOs) working with Indigenous communities to meet their sport and physical activity needs.
Goodes says the Indigenous Sport Development Officers play a critical role in delivering sport programs and services within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. ‘These people are on the ground, working with local communities to get more people involved in sport as well as assisting with the development of individual’s skills to enable them to deliver community sport programs in the future,’ Goodes said.
