A small town with a big example of inclusion
The Freeling Agriculture Recreation and Multi-use Centre - known as The FARM - is in Freeling, approximately 60 kilometres north of Adelaide. The centre includes a health club and a trades and sports hall.
The centre is a hub for Freeling and surrounding communities, and over the last ten weeks has provided local residents with an exciting program of inclusive sport.
Centre Manager Ross Sharer has been building relationships with the community so he can understand local needs, and is an advocate for working with community stakeholders to address barriers to participation.
In March, The FARM hosted its first community network forum with a number of local organisations. This was an opportunity to learn from the community and to hear about past experiences with inclusive programs. It was also a great chance for the FARM team to present initial ideas for an inclusive multi-sport event.
After the forum, the FARM team finalised their plans for a ten week ‘All-inclusive multi-sports mash up’. Excitingly, Feros Care - a not-for-profit organisation offering aged and community care services - offered to support the initiative.
The modified sports program was designed to include people of all abilities and included walking football, netball, tennis, athletics and hockey. The free weekly sessions were led by the SANFL Inclusive League, Netball SA, Athletics SA and Barossa Hockey Association. Ross was keen for the sessions to be an opportunity for anybody between 12 and 65 to give a sport a go, and attendees were a mix of people with disability and people without disability.
Ross particularly liked learning about walking footy, which was an idea that came from the community network forum. This is a no running, no tackling, modified Aussie Rules, launched by SANFL and ECH. It was originally created for people over 50, but as participants at The FARM showed, it can be enjoyed by younger players too.
Ross says that the mash-up showed the value of inclusive programs, and in addition to providing fun at The FARM, it helped an attendee connect with a local footy club.
The program also highlights the benefits of implementing broad engagement and inclusion strategies across an organisation. Belgravia Leisure encourages all its year-round venues to hold community network forums to improve their connection to their local communities, and the initiative has given employees like Ross a framework for positive engagement.
Ross says, ‘It has been wins all round for us’. He encourages other recreation centres to explore ideas for inclusive programming in their communities, suggesting they ‘engage the locals as much as you can’. And if people are unsure about where to start, or nervous about tackling inclusive programming, his advice is ‘Just have a go. It’s really not that hard!’.
