Small grants make big impact across country SA - Learning all the right stuff through sport

Barossa Lower North Shaping Futures used its grant to run three events in the Barossa called ‘SPORT – all the right stuff’. The aim was to use sport as a vehicle to discuss resilience, mental health and drug and alcohol awareness. There was a diverse range of interesting speakers over the three evenings including Psych Med representatives; Thunderbirds netballer Kate Shimmin; Tony Moore from Hoops 4 Life; a former drug user; and Adelaide Crows football players Andy Ottens and Dave Mackay who spoke about their Resilient Minds program.

Highlights from the day included the presentation from Hoops 4 Life - a program which uses sport to engage disadvantaged young people and help Kids at risk to develop life skills such as leaderships, confidence and team building.

Resilient Minds also uses sport to discuss resilience with young people. Andy and Dave are passionate about providing young people with the tools to become more resilient to challenges both on and off the field.

“This sporting focus was a great vehicle for engaging young people while tackling important health issues at the same time,” said Kathryn Schilling, Shaping Future’s Engagement Project Officer.

Shaping Futures also collaborated with Barossa Southern Alliance to hold a pop-up local drug action team information booth in their Regional Youth Bus at a football and netball game day at Williamstown Oval. The bus was a popular chill out space for young people and the team was able to reach many in the community who would not have attended a more formal event. There are plans to continue using the Regional Youth Bus as a pop-up information centre at future events.