Play Well Affiliate Program
Play Well Affiliates Program
Play Well Priority Area
Building Connections and Alignment
Activity Ambition Statement
The affiliate network has grown significantly and is fostering stronger connection, collaboration and coordinated action across the sport, recreation and physical activity sectors, creating greater alignment around shared participation outcomes.
Overview
The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has traditionally worked with national sporting organisations (NSOs) and national sporting organisation for people with a disability (NSODs) to deliver on sporting experiences across Australia.
With the launch of the Play Well Strategy and a vision that ‘everyone has a place in sport’, the ASC is excited to be expanding its connection to more national sport and recreation organisations across Australia. These organisations will be currently delivering or supporting sporting and recreational activities, creating positive sporting experiences, and encouraging more Australians to be physically active.
Eligible organisations can apply to become an ASC Play Well Affiliate. Affiliates will be part of a formalised Program and will help create a connected and collaborative industry that supports all organisations to provide safe, welcoming, inclusive and fun sporting experiences.
Affiliate benefits will include (but are not limited to):
- Contribution to the co-designed implementation of the Play Well Strategy
- Delivery and support of the strategy’s priority activities
- Engagement with the ASC, other Affiliates and key organisations within the sector
- Potential eligibility for future ASC grant programs (subject to any additional criteria and eligibility).
The ASC Play Well Affiliate Program will provide greater interaction, engagement and collaboration between a wider range of Play Well priority stakeholders. This will result in in increased alignment across the sport ecosystem and increased impact and delivery on Play Well objectives.
Download the Program Guidelines below for more information, including a full list of program benefits.
- Program Guidelines[1.05 mb]
All applications will be assessed against the eligibility criteria by ASC staff. Applications which do not meet the eligibility criteria will not progress to assessment.
Eligible organisations must:
- Be not-for profit, national peak bodies who deliver or support sporting or recreation activities, and whose core function encourages Australians to be physically active.
- Be able to provide evidence of financial reports for three consecutive reporting periods and have been operating as a not-for-profit for a minimum of two full years.
- Be compliant with Gender Equity Reporting to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, opens in a new tab (WGEA), as required under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, for organisations with over 100 employees.
- Demonstrate good governance, financial standing and meet the ASC’s integrity requirements, including child safeguarding, complaint management, and preventing and responding to discrimination, harassment, and abuse.
- For organisations that deliver or administer a sport delivered or administered by an ASC recognised National Sports Organisation (NSO) or National Sports Organisation for People with a Disability (NSOD), provide a letter of endorsement for the program application from the NSO/D.
A list of ineligible organisations can be found in the Program Guidelines.
Applications for the Play Well Affiliates Program are currently closed. If you would like to express your interest in the program, please contact playwell@ausport.gov.au.
Affiliate | Project Title | Project Description |
|---|---|---|
AUSactive Limited | Million Moves Campaign (Regional VIC and NSW) | Expansion of the Million Moves initiative to regional Victoria and New South Wales. The campaign empowers women and people with disabilities in low socioeconomic areas to adopt sustainable physical activity habits, reducing sedentary lifestyles through engaging in activations and community-driven movement. |
Australian Little Athletics | Engaging & Educating More Little Athletics Volunteers in Tiny Tots and ITLAS Online Education | Online, self-paced, interactive Tiny Tots & ITLAS educational resources available via a new Learning Management System, enhancing the delivery and experience of Little Athletics. |
School Sport Australia Incorporated | Building Inclusive & Representative School Sport Pathways for Students with a Disability | Expansion of the School Sport Australia (SSA) Championships and Games into inclusive multiclass events. Partnering with Sport Inclusion Australia, this project ensures equitable access to competition, community programs, and sport pathways for students with a disability, fostering cultural change and inclusion. |
UniSport Australia Limited | International Student Sport Festivals | Delivery of International Student Sport Festivals for international students to represent their university through sport. |
AFL Masters | AFL Masters Nines | Delivery of AFL Masters Nines; an abridged non-contact alternative format of AFL for time-poor and injury-adverse AFL Masters’ participants. |
ACHPER Incorporated | Moving Our Bodies: Developing Confident Movers Before School Begins | Improve early learning educators’ knowledge and skills in how to promote physical literacy with pre-schoolers, improve the physical literacy in pre-schoolers and create new pathways to educate parents/carers on how to support the development of physical literacy at home. |
Affiliate | Project Title | Project Description |
|---|---|---|
School Sport Australia Incorporated | SSA Inclusion Project implementation: Included Through School Sport – National Expansion (2026–2027) | Included Through School Sport – National Expansion (2026–2027) is designed to embed inclusion within representative school sport systems. Creation of nationally recognised qualifications (Cert I–III), including a new Certificate I for students with disability and embedded inclusive coaching modules. |
The Y Australia | Active OSHC | “Active OSHC” is focused on increasing participation within cohorts who have low engagement in traditional sports. At the centre of the pilot will be an Active Hour: a dedicated period of structured, educator-led physical activity embedded within the OSHC setting. |
Royal Life Saving Society - Australia | Strengthening Frontline Leadership at Australian Aquatic & Leisure Facilities | Development of a co-designed frontline aquatic leadership credentialling program. A key component of the project is the provision of funded leadership pathways for underrepresented cohorts, supporting greater diversity and reducing barriers to entry into frontline leadership roles. |
Parks and Leisure Australia | Shred Ready - Developing a Best Practice Guide for Planning, Designing, Building and Activating Skate Sport Facilities by the Sector for the Sector | This guide will provide a best practice guide for local governments and other community sport facility providers to understand how to plan for, design, construct and activate skate sport facilities that are suitable for their community's demographics and geography. |
AUSactive Limited | Igniting a National Movement: Million Moves with Schools | Expansion of Million Moves as a national school and community physical activity activation aims to increase participation and build healthy relationships with physical activity. |
AUSTRALIAN MASS PARTICIPATION SPORTS EVENT ALLIANCE LIMITED | National School Mass Participation Initiative: RAD Run Club | Delivery of RAD Run Club to increase regular physical activity among children. Delivered within school environments, students can run, jog or walk at their own pace to participate. |
PGA of Australia | Fairways to Resilience | Fairways to Resilience - The program uses golf as a low‑impact, adaptable activity that supports safe, lifelong physical engagement for current and former ADF personnel, delivered as 10-week programs. |
Sports Medicine Australia | Australian Guidelines for Safer Youth Sport | Establish the Australian Guidelines for Safer Youth Sport, drawing on SMA's multidisciplinary membership representing some of Australia’s leading experts in sports medicine, sports science, and athlete wellbeing. |
ASC Play Well Affiliate Program Members
Play Well Affiliate Program - Toolkit
More information
For more information on the Play Well Affiliate program, contact the ASC Play Well Affiliate team at playwell@ausport.gov.au