The Port Adelaide Football Club is pleased to be partnering with the Department for Child Protection (DCP) and the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing (ORSR) to better support children and young people in care to lead healthy, active lives.
Port Adelaide’s community arm, Power Community Limited (PCL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DCP to engage and support children in care through clinics, carnivals, school programs, events and ticketing.
The club is one of several top level sporting organisations to offer support to the government to provide new opportunities.
“Power Community Ltd has had a long-standing relationship with DCP supporting young people in care through our community programs,” said PCL General Manager, Jake Battifuoco.
“We are excited to strengthen our partnership, recognising sport is a powerful tool to develop lifelong skills and that young people in care should be afforded the same opportunities as others to thrive.”
Port Adelaide AFLW ruck/defender Georgie Jaques, who is studying Social Work, can see the value in the partnership, herself having relatives in care.
“This is an amazing opportunity for kids in care and their carers,” she said.
“I know at Port Adelaide the impact we have in our own community programs, and when we have programs like this for kids in care, it provides opportunities for them to be seen and heard and opens up opportunities for them in the future in sport.”
Port Adelaide has already provided hundreds of tickets to games this season for children and young people in care.
The Minister for Child Protection Katrine Hildyard was grateful for Port Adelaide’s support and the support of other sporting organisations including Netball SA and the Adelaide Crows.
“Children and young people engaged with the child protection and family support system deserve the best opportunities to be safe, loved and nurtured and also participate in community life with the support they need to do so,” the Minister said.
“Sport is powerful with clubs at the heart of communities across our state. Inclusive sporting clubs can empower, support and help transform the lives of children and their families, and particularly those facing some pretty tough times.
“I have felt the difference that can happen in your life when the community family that is so often created through sporting clubs wrap around you and make you know that you belong.
“Sport can build resilience, self-confidence, improve mental, physical and emotional wellbeing and help young people lead healthy, active lives. Sporting clubs often help young people know they are never alone, that there are people who care about them.”
Developed in consultation with staff, carers, representatives of sporting clubs and associations along with community organisations, the partnership has also piloted trauma training for State Sporting Organisations (SSOs) with a view to roll this training out across clubs.
The training focuses on increasing understanding of childhood trauma, trauma related behaviour and inclusive environments for children in care with materials being developed for clubs, coaches, volunteers and administration staff, associations and local government.
The partnership also strives to improve the access of children and young people to sport by developing an innovative approach to better distribute sports voucher funding and by establishing a sports equipment donation scheme for children in care.