Established by Leisure Networks in partnership with the Victorian Government, the grant program seeks to help sports and community organisations strengthen and expand job opportunities for people with disability in regional Victoria.
The recent round of grants will enable Valley Sport to help people with disability to get involved in sports, as well as volunteer and become part of the workforce.
Based out of Shepparton Sports Stadium, the organisation provides information, advice, support and club development programs for grassroots sporting clubs in the Goulburn Valley.
Megan Carr, executive officer at Valley Sport, welcomed the funding boost, as the assembly aims to continue its work across its seven municipal areas.
“Our concept that we pitched for funding is to work with LaTrobe University to put together an advisory group with people with industry experience and lived experience,” she said.
“This is to help provide understanding and ideas around the barriers and the opportunities that exist in regional Victoria in terms of people with disability volunteering in the space.
“Then the outputs of the advisory group will help as we go out to clubs and work out what opportunities are available for people with disability to volunteer.
“We will look for good club environments that could host a person with disability to help volunteer - so this will be a really good opportunity to pair people up with clubs where they can do that.”
Valley Sport also plans to work with the Umpires Association (UA) to help people with disability to become part of their set-up.
“We are going to work with the UA to see how to support them, put extra education behind them,” Carr said.
“The UA is a fantastic opportunity because it’s like a club itself in terms of being like a club itself in terms of being inclusive and working with the community.
A letter of support has been received by Valley Sport from Guiding With Purpose, which has NDIS funding to work with people with disability.
“It’s extremely important, we all know the value of sports clubs to our community and we know it’s the hub of social interaction and a sense of belonging for people to go and be a part of something,” Carr continued.
“We want to make sure sport is accessible for all.”
Following recent events such as the regional round of AFL wheelchair football and the Shepparton All-Ablities Basketball Competition, an All-Abilities Netball Carnival will be hosted in Shepparton in September.
In association with Netball Victoria, AFL Goulburn Murray and the Shepparton Netball Association, Valley Sport will be running clinics in the lead up to a Football-Netball Carnival next year too.
“It’s about creating opportunities and creating ongoing exposure to sport for people to be part of and contribute to,” Carr added.
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