Increasing culturally diverse young people’s access to sport

In the mid 1990s, young people of non-English speaking background were dramatically under-represented as participants in sports clubs. An inquiry commissioned by the Ethnic Affairs Commission in 1995 had found that people of non-English Speaking background were not equitably accessing services, including sports clubs and called upon Sport and Recreation Victoria to ‘investigate ways to increase recreational and sporting activities for NESB [Non-English Speaking Background] youth.’¹

In response, EYIN worked with Sport and Recreation Victoria to develop a program to identify and address the barriers to participation for culturally diverse young people. Over 1200 young people participated in sport as a result of the program, a large number continuing to play in an ongoing way and clubs became more culturally aware and inclusive. An important component of the program was recognising the intersection between gender and culture as a factor in influencing the participation of girls and young women and ensuring the program addressed their needs.

Through consultations with ethno-specific community organisations representing Cambodian, Ethiopian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Spanish, Somali, Timorese and Vietnamese communities, the project revealed the key barriers to participation as including the impact of the migration and resettlement process on families, a lack of familiarity with sporting clubs and environments, challenges for parents in supporting their child’s participation, the potential threat of racism as a deterrent, challenges in physical access and a lack of links between sporting associations and culturally diverse communities.² The program shared the most successful strategies to address these barriers and made a range of recommendations in a broadly disseminated report.

Beyond the obvious health and wellbeing benefits of participation in sport, EYIN became aware of how powerful sports programs were as a means of supporting young people’s community participation and in supporting newly arrived young people’s settlement. As such, sports programs have remained a central part of EYIN and later CMY’s programs ever since.