24 Jul How Inclusive are SA Sport Clubs?’ Report released

Today, Inclusive Sport SA has released the How Inclusive are SA sport clubs Report offering a glimpse into current community attitudes regarding the involvement of people with disability (PWD) in local club sport.

As one of three pillars of the Information Linkages and Capacity Building Project funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency, Inclusive Sport SA engaged the support of fifteen State Sport Organisations for an indication of the genuine value of inclusion and diversity at the peak state level. I

t was pleasing to discover that from grassroots to high performance departments, all SSO’s understood the benefit and important societal value of an inclusive and diverse membership; the challenge, however, for clubs was the limited knowledge on where to ‘start’ to engage with PWD or change varying attitudes of inclusion with their members.

From these meetings the How Inclusive are SA sport clubs survey was developed in collaboration with industry professionals, Inclusive Sport SA’s Participant Advisory Group and Monash University’s Behavioural Science Professors.

The Report unearthed interesting themes and has assisted in directing the next pillar of the project – the Well Played video promotional campaign with the aim to challenge the comfort level within the community and shift perception to one that views including people with a disability as no longer an option but rather, is everyday – ‘ordinary life’.

Inclusive Sport SA General Manager, Sector Engagement, Katrina Ranford said, “It is encouraging to see that our South Australian sporting community genuinely values the inclusion of people with disability in sport.”

“Our next challenge is to improve access to sport and active recreation for people with a disability in local mainstream clubs”. “

This three-point journey to inclusion includes a publicity campaign, awareness training to build capacity in the sector which will lead to a set of professional standards for sport bodies and guidance for sport consumers.”

Thank you to all State Sporting Organisations, sporting clubs and their members who took part in and completed the survey. A follow up survey is to be distributed early in 2020, after the release of the full Well Played video campaign.

This will measure the shift in (if any) perceptions and awareness of community sport consumers and the inclusion of people with disability as just another ordinary person capable of joining a club as a volunteer, player or coach.

You can read the full ‘How Inclusive are SA sport clubs’ Report HERE.