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As a regional and rural women’s health service, we recognise the power of sport in preventing violence against women. Our local communities are tightknit and sport is often a key reason for that. Sport can be a great vehicle for change. Sport can place social issues such as violence against women on the radar of the community and start a dialogue on hard to talk about topics. Sport can also address potential issues or barriers to inclusion, respect, safety and equal opportunity that may be present in the club and affect women, men and gender-diverse people’s participation.

WHG and CoRE can help clubs be apart of the change process and help foster diverse and inclusive cultures, particularly the attraction and retention of women and girls.

“Sporting clubs add a critical opportunity to influence the attitudes and beliefs about what is normal and acceptable behaviour. Leadership in this area is critical if we are going to create a better, safer and more equitable community for our next generation” WHG CEO Marianne Hendron

“It’s vital to be a part of the Victorian Government’s commitment to change for women in sport.” Sports Central’s Executive Officer, Michael Flynn

There are many benefits of becoming a CoRE member, including:

CoRE & Sport

Sporting clubs make up 19% of CoRE Alliance members with a diversity of codes represented including – footy, football (soccer), basketball, golf, roller derby, cricket, and tennis.

The issue of gender-based violence matters to clubs  let’s continue to grow the team by encouraging others to become CoRE members.

The biggest resource clubs can access through CoRE is a WHG Regional Consultant (RC). We understand clubs have a volunteer dynamic and are time poor – an RC can work within the club’s capacity and provide practical guidance and support where needed.

Act@Play

For those who want to go the extra mile and accelerate gender equality outcomes in the club – we recommend our hallmark program – Act@Play.

Funded by Sport and Recreation Victoria in 2018, Act@Play is a 6-month intensive cultural change program specifically designed to reflect the nature of the sport and recreation sector and work in partnership with a club to enable a more female-friendly environment and ensure quality and sustainable actions.

To date, AFL Goldfields, Basketball Ballarat, Ballarat City Football Club, Minyip Murtoa Football Netball Club and Horsham Basketball have participated in the fee-for-service program which has seen the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans and club-wide bystander training to advance gender equality outcomes.

Resources

When you become a CoRE member you have access to many sport-specific resources to support your club’s gender equality journey, including:

  • E-newsletters – keep up to date with everything to do with gender equality in sport/recreation locally through our regular e-newsletter.
  • Taking Action Guides – don’t have the faintest idea where to start with promoting gender equality? Don’t worry this guide has you covered!
  • Bystander posters – culture is important to the fabric of a club. Let’s make it a culture that calls out disrespect – these posters may help kickstart that conversation.
  • Templates – are you after gender equality quizzes, guidance on 16 Days of Activism and IWD, leadership statements, etc – we have all that and more.
  • Webinars – if you need a little dose of PD in this space, these webinars may help.

Sign up to our e-newsletter here.

For more information contact Dee Angelina Micevski (Regional Consultant, WHG; Lead, Gender Equality in Sport & Recreation, WHG), dee@whg.org.au, (03) 5322 4100.

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