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>View discussions about this entry Country: Australia
Organization: The Adidem Group
Sport: Other
Year the initative began (yyyy) 2007
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? Tackling tough social problems by bringing people together for sport activities that deliver individual health and broader community strength outcomes
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? Many sports related activities are focused on healthy living, awareness and / or raising funds for mainstream charities i.e. Fun Runs etc. People make a commitment for an event or a day, but thereafter too often disconnect from the purpose.
SupPORT for CHANGE takes this further by bringing people together at the community level to participate in activity-based public events that address pressing social problems. Pro bono and financial resources are drawn-in to invest in a 10 point model: 1) a good understanding of pressing social issues drawn from thorough research, 2) selection of problem not adequately being addressed, 3) detailed planning, 4) meaningful community consultation and engagement, Sport is involved through both the involv What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? The social problems currently being addressed by the program include child poverty, use of crystal methamphetamine (“Ice”), social exclusion / racism (Indigenous Australians and newly arrived migrants), and homelessness.
Approaches to these are characterized by the following characteristics: Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? The problem to be addressed must be persistent or unpopular and of concern to community. This is revealed through research and community consultation. Detailed planning is done with the community to design a campaign for public action and promote a sense of community ‘ownership’ of the problem. Responses include the raising of funds to support changes in the way the problem is currently being addressed, the engagement of new partners and the introduction of innovations such as social enterprise solutions to unemployment. Commercial skills and resources such as planning, event management and communications are brought to bear through collaboration with private sector partners on a pro bono or less than commercial basis. Public action is based around physical activities / events that are inclusive and guarantee the meaningful participation of those who are to be supported. Outcomes are monitoring and evaluated to ensure effectiveness.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? Growth will come from the ongoing revelation of pressing social problems and engagement with more communities. People can themselves come up with their own ideas ranging from unorthodox sporting challenges such as kicking a ball around the country to more conventional events (fun runs etc). The program is opportunistic and responsive to community leaders who want assistance to tackle problems of concern to them and their communities. Replication can also follow from success with other communities wanting to adopt the methodology. For example, other local government areas can become involved with a campaign with the support of companies, governments or perhaps the Municipal Association of Victoria. Obviously, success can also attract other financial backers that can enable expansion of the program and thereby increase support to an increased number of activities.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. All activities of the program will be monitored & evaluated with LaTrobe University’s School of Sport, Tourism & Hospitality Management
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? 1) Kicking Goals with Communities
Partnership with Boroondara City Council, Foundation Boroondara, Rotary, Pacific Brands & Anyinc Foundation. The Brotherhood of St Laurence has completed research. Socom designing public campaign for involvement of local sports clubs and identities. 2) Getting Active Against Racism 3) Dangers of Dabbling 4) Street Soccer for Social Change
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? • Number of communities engaged in the program
• Number of partners and levels of investment • Means by which communities take-up the issues • Amount of publicity it attracts to the issues being addressed • Extent to which organisations relate to each other and others • What structural changes are made to deal more effectively with the issues • Changes in policy and organizational structure What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? A constraint on the number of partners engaged and levels of investment made in the program will act as barriers to its success. Success in this context is dependent on identifying community leaders and program partners to take-up the opportunities afforded by the program. Failure to get the message out that SupPORT for CHANGE offers something new and important in an otherwise crowded field of CSR and sports related activities could limit its potential.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? The initiative is backed by The Adidem Group and has secured three years funding from Pacific Brands. We are in discussion with other potential donors to provide support to our operational costs and provide support to individual projects as described above.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. • Annual budget: Aus$300,000 per annum.
• Annual operational funding to date: Aus$100,000 per annum for three years from Pacific Brands. Remainder currently being provided by sponsorship of The Adidem Group. • Number of staff: 1 full-time • Program funding to date: $20,000 (further commitments in process) • Pro bono support has been provide by J Walter Thomson Australia What is the potential demand for your innovation? Demand innovation exceeds capacity to deliver support. None of identified projects are fully funded and unless more funds found new opportunities such as 1) REDZ that assists new migrants in Queensland integrate through sport, particularly basketball, and 2) Worowa Aboriginal College in Healesville, Victoria, where sport is being used to assist with the integration of Indigenous kids.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? With the support of The Adidem Group and Pacific Brands we are operationally secure for the time being. However, the main barrier to attaining sufficient funding for our activities is the time and effort required to convince potential partners by demonstrating the delivery of tangible outcomes from those activities. It will take time before measurable outcomes can be identified from the initial four projects. Meanwhile, opportunities may be lost to expand the program elsewhere.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. As a young man and later as a professional athlete, I knew that sport could help provide personal confidence and its capacity to attract attention in society. When in government I was able to provide support to the Street Socceroos and Homeless World Cup, which together have demonstrated how effective sport can be in providing pathways for people in difficulty to build a better future. As an Australian I knew too the power of sport in influencing people’s attitudes, but I was also aware that as yet this power has not been fully tapped, nor has it been sufficiently directed towards tackling persistent and unpopular social problems. I was filled with ideas about how sport might empower people to make changes in their own lives and for the benefit of the wider community.
In a discussion of these ideas with Graeme Wise, Chairman of The Adidem Group, he invited me to join the Group and develop an initiative designed to harness the power of sport for wider social good. I then resigned my role in the Sate Government and developed what has become SupPORT for CHANGE. It is clear in the few months since then that our achievements to date have vindicated our optimism. We have identified some interesting and useful initiatives and already attracted significant support. However, it is still early days and we have not yet delivered on the program’s potential, although indications are that it will be attractive to those who want to draw on sport as a way of engaging with communities Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. Charles was agricultural extension officer and Oxfam Field Director for Tanzania. In UK Charles was Senior Research Associate at IIED and Director of Pilotlight UK. He has been consultant, advised Band Aid and Comic Relief, and researched documentary, Why are People so Damn Poor, wrote and narrated, The Price of Conservation, for BBC.
Charles was CEO of The Myer Foundation and founding director of Indigenous Enterprise Partnerships in Cape York. Before joining The Adidem Group, Charles was Contact Information:
Charles Lane
Sr. Program Associate Competitions and Policy The Adidem Group (NGO) Discussions about this entry |
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SupPORT for CHANGE: Harnessing the power of sport for social change
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Charles,
Thank you for your post. I think that this idea is a terrific one - perhaps because I am developing a very similar initiative myself (I have created something of a "Young Professionals Group" to link young urban professionals who are looking to get involved in the community to one of our programs that gets urban youth physical activity opportunities; the group also acts as a social forum for this age group to network and have a good time doing various activities outside of our work).
I think that there is an untapped population of young people who sincerely wish to help make social change, but also want to make a decent pay check. Further, so many individuals (especially in AUS where you are!) are current/former athletes themselves and delight in an opportunity to make that change through sport and to also connect with like-minded people who share their background and interests. By creating this kind of a group, you are both creating a means for effecting change, as well as easing the burden these busy people have of finding service opportunities or even making friends who do not work with them.
You mused at whether the model would be attractive to your target audience and I would have to say that, from experience, it is! In fact, I have found that I have unleashed a beast! I have a massive amount of people who want to participate in our work - knowing that they want to help positively impact youth through sport in the way that they reaped its benefits - and now we have to find out how to best utilize them!
I think a key thing to remember is to make those participating in your events key participants in the organizations development - deciding what projects to perform, what issues to target and using their unique skills to build collateral, design a website, etc.
I also wonder what your funding will primarily be used for? It seems that if you engage people from all walks of society to join the organization as participants and planners, you have a skill set to market and promote and plan your strategy at a volunteer level. Plus, there are certainly a number of grass roots level, less costly activities that you could perform. So beyond what are you going to use funding for, could you also go into more details about specific organizational activities?
Thanks and I look forward to learning more!