Sign in
Sign in
Contact

Keeping it Going
Women and Girls

Right across Victoria, sports, sporting organisations, organisations and government bodies are working hard to increase the involvement of women and girls in sport as participants, leaders, managers and as professional athletes.

Your sport can play a big part in supporting this movement at the grassroots level, and then by maintaining and building on early successes to get even more women and girls involved.

Some State Sporting Associations have expanded their categories and offered equal prize money for both men and women.

The information outlined below provides your organisation with ideas and strategies to continue developing an environment that everyone wants to be apart of:

Seeking feedback from your local community, including people with a disability is a very useful exercise and one which your organisation should undertake regularly. Continue to seek feedback in regard to any programs/participation opportunities that your sporting organisations offer, to continue to make sure what you offer is a good quality inclusive activity.

The Office for Disability has a useful resource about creating accessible surveys. Click here to download it. You can also click here to download their resource about communicating with people with disability.

You could use a free resource like Survey Monkey to help design and distribute a survey. The Club Help website offers three surveys that you can adapt to construct your survey:

Surveys can help you find out more about who lives in your local community, their general interests and sport participation levels. Use this information to identify relevant activities and opportunities for your sport to engage the community and make improvements to what it is already doing.

 

During the Everyone Wins program, State Sporting Associations found that surveying members provided useful information which led to more targeted programs to increase participation by women and girls.

 

Many organisations already produce useful information about Victorian communities, and your sport organisation can tap into this information. For example, you can seek information from your local council, other community groups, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and VicHealth.

  • In 2016, VicHealth released its Victorian Health Indicators resources, which provide a snapshot about the health and wellbeing status of local government areas.
  • AusPlay provides data around participation rates in sport and physical activity for children and adults, as well as summaries of the key barriers and drivers to participation in sport. Results and new data tables are released every 6 months.

While there are many things your organisation can do on your own, collaborating with strategic partners (other than existing partners and sponsors) can help you gain access to more resources, skills and connections. These strategic partnerships will help you to grow your existing activities, skill sets and capabilities and identify what else you can do to keep the momentum going.

Here are some examples of the benefits of strategic partnerships:

  • A strategic partnership with key decision makers such as local councilors or Members of Parliament may assist in contributing future resources or support to improve how your facility meets the needs of women and girls.
  • Connecting with a local law firm may provide support to help review and revise your policies at no cost (refer to Policies and Practice section).
  • Your increased focus on women and girls could open doors to new sponsorship or partnership opportunities, and there may be a range of local businesses that would be interested in supporting your organisation beyond your existing sponsor base.

You might want to search for organisations that offer Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, pro-bono work or corporate workplace giving programs designed to benefit community organisations.

Resources and grants

Sometimes a little extra money will help you to accelerate the activities that support female participation. Many local, State and Federal government organisations also have a focus on supporting female participation, and offer grants to sporting organisations to assist at grassroots level. These grants may focus on participation, facilities, education or leadership. To ensure you are in the loop on these opportunities, you are encouraged to sign up to newsletters from Sport and Recreation Victoria, VicHealth, State Sporting Associations, Vicsport or your local council.

Vicsport provide a regularly updated list of current grant opportunities here.

Specifically, to women and girls, the VicHealth Active Club Grants Program offers to get more women and girls involved in sport. Funding will be awarded to clubs looking to establish new female teams or to deliver new activities, programs or competitions.

Sport and Recreation Victoria often offer a range of grants for the Victorian sport sector, including female initiatives and facilities.

Your local council will be a good starting place to refer to regarding grant opportunities. Refer to Know Your Council to find out more about your council, or refer to your local council website.

 

State Sporting Associations involved in the Everyone Wins program believe that ongoing partnerships with local businesses, governments and other not for profit organisations are key to making inclusion sustainable.

Sharing your success stories with other sport organisations can be a great way to demonstrate the work that you have been doing to increase engagement of women and girls. These stories can generate interest and excitement around your sport or organisation. They can also get more community members interested in the steps your club has taken, expose your club to more potential female participants or volunteers, and help build strategic partnerships and attract new sponsors.

These stories can include testimonials, videos filmed on a phone, a page on your website or quotes that can be shared on social media. Remember, a picture tells a thousand words!

It is important to recognise and celebrate the people within your sport who have led the way on boosting women’s participation. This can include recognition within your organisation, or entering awards offered by other sport sector organisations or local council. Here’s some ideas:

  • Offer awards and recognition within your club or association – this might be as simple as certificates and “thank you” letters from committees and recognising champions through award structures (e.g. annual and/or regular awards).
  • Nominate people for awards (Victorian Sport Awards, State Sporting Associations awards, local council).
  • Hold celebration events (lunches or morning teas) celebrating female participation.
  • Display awards that recognise the achievements of women and girls in and around the clubrooms.
  • Swap the order in which events and awards are delivered so that women aren’t always after men.
  • Ensure all trophies and prizes are equitable in comparison to men’s competitions.
  • Consider participating in state and national awareness-raising events, such as International Women’s Day or White Ribbon Day.
  • Promote the achievements of women and girls – for example, put photos and content in your newsletter or website or contact your local newspaper to write a story.

Sportsview

Vicsport's monthly e-newsletter containing information and updates from across the sport industry.

 

Clearinghouse4Sport: Women’s Sport

This page on the Clearinghouse4Sport website provides an extensive range of links, research articles and case studies related to the topic of Women’s Sport.

 

Change Our Game

Following the Inquiry into Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation, this website showcases best practice promotion and development of female sport in Victoria. This includes stories of change, role models, case studies and links to major media stories.