GippSport has been working with Regional Sport Victoria (RSV) to introduce the Stride into Sport campaign, which aims to boost club registrations ahead of the summer sports season. This campaign will actively promote sporting opportunities available over the summer months and highlight how barriers to participation can be overcome.
In 2020, 175,708 fewer Victorian children and young people (aged 4-19 years) participated in community sport than in 2019. Many of these juniors could not continue participating due to financial pressures and health risks associated with COVID-19. The impact of this on regional community sport is still felt today in areas like individual fundamental movement and skill development.
GippSport recognises the vital social connection and community aspects of summer sports and, through the help of some wonderful programs such as Get Active Kids Vouchers, continues to support juniors stride back into the sports they love.
GippSport Executive Officer Dan Poynton said junior participation was crucial for sporting communities.
“Our 2021-22 Gippsland Sport Census showed junior club sport participation declined 26 per cent on average across Gippsland as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, participation is slowly coming back and pleasingly junior entry-level programs like Cricket Blast, Hot Shots tennis, Little Athletics etc. are experiencing strong interest from the community. It’s why we’re really excited to support Stride into Sport to see more juniors and young people get back out there,” Mr Poynton said.
“As junior players and their families re-engage with sport this summer, it’s important for clubs to understand why juniors and young people participate. Our Increasing Access to Sport project overwhelmingly identified that having fun and playing with friends were the main drivers of participation for these age groups. Almost none of the participants said they participated to win or for the competition. If clubs can embrace these motivating factors to support ongoing youth participation it will set them up to be really strong clubs into the future.
“It would be fantastic to see clubs across Gippsland join the campaign this summer. Our GippSport team, with the support of the Victorian Government’s Together More Active program, has people across Gippsland whose role is to work with clubs to grow participation. So it will be great to see more young people ‘Stride into Sport’ this summer.”
RSV General Manager Meghan Mayman said the campaign provided a great opportunity to continue encouraging juniors to get active over summer.
“Juniors are so important to the growth of our community sports. Over the next few weeks we want to showcase the benefits of being part of a sporting club,” Ms Mayman said.
“Juniors are so important to the growth of our community sports. Over the next few weeks we want to showcase the benefits of being part of a sporting club,” Ms Mayman said.
“Stride into Sport shines a spotlight on the registration period for community sport and recreation clubs across regional Victoria. Let’s inspire as many kids as possible to make the next strides into sport.”
For more information about Stride into Sport, click HERE.
For more information regarding the organised sports available, please select your sport by clicking HERE.
