Planning for a Future Healthy Gippsland

Future Healthy is an investment by VicHealth that will be inspired by, shaped by, and shared by the young people of Victoria.

This requires partnerships with local youth services and local government to consult with young people in community sport and recreation to implement or support local strategies to provide more opportunities to be physical activity and socially connected in Gippsland.

GippSport’s first step in creating a healthy future for our community is working with our partners and young people to identify collaboration opportunities. We invited VicHealth, five youth organisations, three local councils and six young people to join us, sharing barriers, opportunities and support needed for Gippsland’s young people to be physical active and socially connected. What followed was an afternoon workshop to investigate the problems and issues further and then develop potential solutions that the GippSport team will test and explore in our future work.

All set for today's #FutureHealthy Gippsland Youth Stakeholder Roundtable! We're looking forward to hearing from young people about their experiences and barriers when it comes to physical activity and social connection and how we can support them.@VicHealth pic.twitter.com/6pC1EuAF3m
— GippSport (@GippSport) December 1, 2021

GippSport Work in Future Healthy

VicHealth has a vision where no young person is denied a future that is healthy – regardless of their postcode, bank balance or background.

We know that young people are healthier and happier when they’re physically active, yet young people in regional Victoria don’t always have the same opportunities as those living in metro areas.

GippSport, in partnership with VicHealth, is working to improve the health and wellbeing of Gippslanders aged 0-25, including those that face the most significant barriers.

VicHealth’s investment has enabled GippSport to work with and listen to young people across Gippsland to understand their needs based on their own experiences and the barriers they face.

The first step in creating a healthy future for our community is working with local youth services and councils in partnering and sharing information and resources to create and shaping the physical activity and social connection opportunities young people want and need.

The Barriers, Opportunities and Support Gippsland young people face when becoming physically active

Do you ever feel like you’ve got the answers, but no one seems to listen? Do you feel like you’re always being talked at, rather than talked to about an issue that means something to you? Many young people in our community feel this way and it’s time to have young voices heard when it comes to building a healthier future.

And that is just what we wanted to do with our Gippsland Youth Stakeholder Roundtable.
We asked our youth organisations and local councils to bring a young person to our event to share with us:

This is what they told us:

Gippsland collaboration opportunities – Let’s work together

After listening and gaining insights into the problems, it was time to workshop potential solutions. To do this, attendees were split into three groups to explore one of three themes identified by young people in Gippsland when it comes to physical activity:

To start the process, we gave the groups five minutes to write down as many ideas on how to combat/overcome the problem.

The next step was to group the ideas into “buckets”, discussing its link to the barrier and how it helps to overcome it.

Problem 1: Visibility- marketing, advertising. What you see & hear before you get there.

Problem 2: Transport & Cost

Problem 3: The First Experience

Groups were then asked to arrange their ideas on and impact/effort convergence template.

Finding the solutions that work

After this process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, each group was given an opportunity to nominate two of their high-impact, low-effort ideas to put through a prototyping exercise. The chosen solutions were as follows:

Next steps

Armed with information gained from our Youth Stakeholder Roundtable, the GippSport team will be working through the ideas and insights to inform our work when increasing young people’s physical activity and social connection through participation in traditional or social sport, active recreation, active play, and community-led activities.

Are you interested in partnering with us to create physical activity opportunities for Gippsland young people?
Call us on 5176 3020 or email info@gippsport.com.au

If you would like to learn more about our work in Future Healthy, visit: gippsport.com.au/future-healthy