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Everybody’s game

Everybody’s game

  • There has been considerable progress around diversity and inclusion and now more than ever there is support for a sport sector that better reflects our population.
  • Sport continues to find ways to be more inclusive to reflect Australia’s diverse communities. This includes older adults, people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, people with disability, people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people identifying as LGBTIQ+.
  • A growing sector-wide focus on increasing female participants, administrators, attendees and viewers is apparent, often accompanied with the philosophy of ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’.
  • Women are being empowered to participate in sport through recent campaigns such as ‘This Girl Can’​.
  • Recognition, attendance and coverage of elite women’s sport is sharply in focus shown through record-breaking attendance at the final of the ICC Women’s T20 WC in Melbourne in 2020, and the Matilda’s voted as Australia’s favourite team (True North Research 2020). This has a correlation to community sport participation.
  • The recent announcement of Australia and New Zealand hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 is likely to result in an even more sharpened focus on women’s sport.

What this could mean for sport?

  • Embrace the ‘be what you can see’ philosophy and change practices to ensure you have a diverse board, management team, coaching staff and participant base.
  • Make inclusive policies, approaches and actions the norm, with genuine buy-in and engagement throughout your sport.
  • Develop inclusive and appropriate marketing material and messages that back-up your focus and actions.
  • Review your participation objectives and product suite to identify gaps and opportunities.
  • Engage with participants and stakeholders to shape products and offers that meet needs and better reflect the type of sport and organisation you want to be.

Resources

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