Women and girls say Count Me In Too
Published Mar 13 2020
Local sports clubs are calling on women and girls across Fawkner, Glenroy and Hadfield to get involved in volunteering opportunities.
An initiative of Count Me In Too, the callout follows a successful 2019 that saw more than 600 women and girls from diverse cultural backgrounds take part in sports.
The program supports participants to give sport a go by offering welcoming environments, such as women-only and child-friendly sessions, spaces for prayer, and offering sessions that do not clash with cultural events.
The program is proving a success with more women and girls getting involved in sports as social players, registering as club members and taking up coaching sessions.
“I live on the same street and didn’t realise there was a club here that I could access” – Raina* said.
“I haven’t’ played in a long time but I love playing now and feel I am doing something for myself” – Uzma said.
Merri Health’s community wellbeing team is currently working with local sports clubs to strengthen their volunteer engagement, and supporting multicultural women and girls to access volunteer opportunities, building their capacity to step into leadership and decision making roles.
Local sports clubs, women and girls looking to get involved can email community.wellbeing@merrihealth.org.au
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* Names have been changed to respect the privacy of our clients. Quotes have been included with the permission of clients.
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Participant data
Age bracket: 4-75 years
From 28 diverse cultural backgrounds
Travelled from 33 suburbs across Melbourne
Generally, English is their second language
Nationalities: Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan, Iraqi, Bangladeshi, Albanian, Syrian, Turkish and Somali
Sports played: tennis, cricket, lawn bowls, golf, football, basketball, badminton and netball
View the feature story from SBS here.
View the successful partnerships by Tennis Victoria here.
View our Inclusive Sport for Women and Girls video here.
Count Me In Too is a partnership project between Moreland Council and Merri Health. The Project is supported by the Victorian Government and the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Visit www.dpc.vic.gov.au or www.dss.gov.au for more information.
Merri Health also acknowledges funding support from Tennis Victoria ACE Community Program towards Count Me In Too.