The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has launched a world-leading roadmap to help sports and clubs embrace intersectionality and grow participation.
Intersectionality examines how a person’s identities, such as their gender, ethnicity or sexuality, can affect their access to opportunities and privileges.
The ASC’s Roadmap: An all inclusive approach to governance and leadership in Australian sport shares how systems can be designed to support the intersection of these differences in sport.
The roadmap encourages sports to create inclusive and safer environments, ensure more equitable access, and facilitate opportunities and welcoming experiences for all. This builds on the principles instilled through the Play Well (participation) and Win Well (high performance) sport strategies.
The roadmap includes case studies on sports governance standards and gender equity in sport audits, as well as activities which can be used to strengthen existing organisational programs and processes, or create new projects, policies and structures.
The Roadmap is aimed at those in governance, leadership and decision-making roles across Australian sport and takes them through a Ready, Set, Go process:
- READY – understanding the principles of intersectionality and how to get the most out of the roadmap for each organisation
- SET - considering what parts of the roadmap can be overlayed to enhance a sport or club’s existing programs and processes
- GO - a series of practical tools to assist with implementation.
The ASC will adopt the principles of this roadmap and also offer training opportunities to organisations who want to begin embedding the principles directly into their work.
“Using an intersectional lens to make decisions will support marginalised groups and help the sector grow,” ASC CEO Kieren Perkins OAM said.
"As we lead up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, the Australian sports sector has a unique chance to maximise sport’s power to bring people together and demonstrate global leadership. That starts with making our playing fields and sports boardrooms more inclusive.”
Sporting organisations can go “All in” here: Intersectionality | Australian Sports Commission
