Umps and coaches receive Her Sport Her Way grants

AFL NSW/ACT has received two grants from the NSW Government to foster women and girls’ involvement in footy.

The grants – each worth $25,000 – came from the Her Sport Her Way program, which aims to assist eligible NSW state sporting organisations develop and deliver new initiatives to increase of women and girls in sport, on and off the field, and build culture of diversity and inclusion.

This year’s program focuses on adolescent girls.

Umpires and coaches are essential to ensure our game can continue to grow and thrive and AFL NSW/ACT is delighted to receive funding for the Change the Game Umpire Accelerator Program and the She Can Coach Accelerator Program.

 

Change the Game Umpire Accelerator Program

The Change the Game Umpire Accelerator Program is designed to rapidly accelerate the recruitment of female umpires in Australian football.

AFL NSW/ACT will deliver workshops across the state designed to rapidly increase the number of women and girls in the umpiring community. These workshops are AFL NSW/ACT’s first women’s only umpire training program and be led by women leaders – including female AFL and AFLW umpires – to demonstrate the pathways available for our participants who want to change the game.

Aspiring umpires will then be supported to undertake and complete an online officiating course and supported to begin their umpiring career.

 

She Can Coach Accelerator Program

The She Can Coach Accelerator program is designed to attract and develop more female coaches into the game.

The program is targeted at specifically at women and girls from across the Australian footballing community, including existing players, parents and club volunteers.

AFL NSW/ACT will deliver workshops across the state designed to accelerate the introduction of women into coaching. Led by existing female coaches and women sporting leaders,
these workshops will set a pathway for our aspiring coaches to complete a foundation level coaching course and begin their coaching career.

 

2022 Women and Girls Action Plan

The announcement of the Her Sport Her Way grants comes the same week as the AFL announced its 2022 Women and Girls Action Plan, which is designed to drive participation and representation for women and girls across all aspects of community football.

The action plan has been developed to help achieve the aspirations in participation outlined in the Women’s Football Vision, which was released late in 2021 and has a stated objective that the game will strive for equal participation and representation by the end of this decade.

The $5 million upfront commitment for the next three years comes in addition to the AFL’s $8 million extra investment into community football announced in December 2021, to help rebuild the grassroots game after two years of COVID disruptions.

Two of the key outcomes of the Plan are to:

• – Further develop 40 talent-identified community coaches annually through the national ‘She Can Coach’ program
• – Upskill 600 current community coaches and target more than 3000 new female coaches to increase women in coaching from eight per cent to 18 per cent

 

Read the Minister for Sport and Tourism’s Her Sport Her Way media release here.