Each Sunday at 8am, a little boy wearing a big smile and an oversized netball t-shirt arrives with his mother and three older siblings at the Kensington Community Recreation Centre for a free breakfast and 75 minutes of sport.
He listens, he learns, he loves it. He is also five years old, which is younger than the target age of 12-17 for the state government-funded NetGOALS program, but the philosophy that all are welcome means no child is turned away.
His mum, meanwhile, sits chatting with other women from among the predominantly migrant local families, many of them financially disadvantaged. Thus there is also a positive social element to the weekly activity that began in late February near the public housing towers in Melbourne’s inner north.
Almost 200km away, at the Mooroopna campus of the Greater Shepparton Secondary College, the NetGOALS initiative takes another form. For 40 minutes during the lunch break on Mondays and Wednesdays, around 20 Year 9 students are also provided with a healthy meal and a regular taste of netball.
According to Netball Victoria’s Sports Alliance Project Manager, Kristen Penny, these two different demographics and modified approaches share the common aim of providing opportunities and outlets for young people, including those easily influenced or previously exposed to unlawful activity.
Sport is the vehicle, teaching life skills such as teamwork, resilience, responsibility and leadership, while also contributing to physical and mental health and wellbeing.
“We’re taking netball to areas that might not necessarily be able to afford to participate in netball, or sport, giving them the chance to be active, and also giving meals to kids who might go hungry,’’ Penny says of the important addition to Netball Victoria’s suite of participation and community engagement programs.
“Some of them are let down in so many other areas of their life, so it’s about being consistent. We’ll turn up every Sunday in Kensington and every Monday and Wednesday in Shepparton during the term; rain, hail or shine we are there to ensure that they’re not let down by us.’’
The Andrews government, through its Community Crime Prevention Program, has provided $150,000, and Netball Victoria $15,000, while The Venny in Kensington and the Lighthouse Project Greater Shepparton have assisted with the roll-out.
Natalie Hutchins, the Minister for Crime Prevention, said the programs seek to engage and provide direction for “kids that are most at risk of dropping out of school, of not being able to get a job, of coming into contact with the justice system’’. She stressed the importance of learning personal development skills to carry far beyond the netball court.
Financial disadvantage and cultural differences are also factors. Penny says family dynamics can mean that many girls are unable to commit to playing a full season, “so this is giving them the opportunity to still get their netball or their sport fix in, and get out there and have some fun’’.
In Kensington, that will include free school holiday clinics on 6, 8 and 13 April, with lunch provided at noon, and an on-court session from 12.45-2pm.
“I also love that the mothers are so engaged in it - in a sport that is very foreign to them, and ... they’re so happy that we’re offering such a program to get their kids active and involved in the sport,’’ says Penny.
Danni von der Borch, who works in community development and therapeutic engagement at The Venny, says involvement with sport helps to remove stigmatisation and improve social cohesion.
She believes the fact NetGOALS is free removes what can be a huge barrier for migrant and refugee families, as does its participation rather than competition-based nature.
“It’s not like club sport when you then also have all of these extra commitments around getting to games and having to pay extra club fees and things like that,’’ von der Borch says.
“It is about skills development, it is about fitness, it is about social engagement, it is about building resilience and confidence and time together and the kids - both girls and boys - just get so much out of it.
“The local families, the mothers, are just so appreciative of something they can actually access. It’s right at their doorstep, they know their kids are safe, they can go and actually have some good fun and fitness and do something healthy for their bodies and their minds and their hearts and just get a lot of joy out of it. And parents don’t need to find other resources to make it possible.’’
Penny believes there is both the need and the appetite to roll out the program far more widely across metropolitan and regional Victoria in the coming years.
“We want to get out there to as many people as possible, so if we receive state government funding past June 30 we can expand this statewide, so that would be an absolute dream of ours,’’ she says.
“We don’t want cost to be a factor in people participating in netball; we want them to be able to participate whether they’ve got $1 or $1 million. We want it to be open to everyone.’’
If you'd like to get involved or learn more about NetGOALS, click here.
