"Keeping partners engaged over the longer term is a common challenge for many projects" – Rhonda Hernandez, team coordinator

With their hot pink uniforms, the Dragons under-18 girls team certainly demand attention as they match up against the opposition in their weekend game of basketball.

Seventeen-year old Rina, who plays centre for the Dragons, fled from Sudan with her older sister in the late 1990s. She’s been living in Melbourne for two years. Two matches into the season, Rina thinks they’ve got a long way to go if the team is to get to the finals, but the main thing is that she’s playing, making friends and having fun.

“Before the team started I just watched basketball on TV. It was too hard to find a court, let alone play,” Rina explains.

Team coordinator Rhonda Hernandez, from the Northern Migrant Resource Centre in Preston, beams as she scores the game, although she’s the first to admit that it isn’t easy to get newly arrived refugee young people involved in physical activities. And she should know: Rhonda coordinates a number of basketball teams for young people like Rina.

One issue that she has particularly noticed is how difficult it has been to involve the young people’s parents.

“Parental engagement and support is difficult to maintain. We’ve tried family days but the parents or guardians of these kids often have higher priorities such as employment, housing and education, as well as facing language barriers.”

Rhonda observed that the kids themselves were very keen to get involved in local physical activities. In 2003, confronted with a growing group of teenagers who would wander around the local basketball courts during practice time, she decided to act.

The Bridging Gaps with Basketball project was born.

The project, funded by a VicHealth Active Participation Grant for the past two years, is run by the Northern Migrant Resource Centre under the auspice of the Banyule City Council. The project was designed to establish five ongoing basketball teams for teenagers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It took off immediately and there are currently seven teams running in two competitions. More girls and boys keep turning up to the training sessions wanting to play.

Rhonda says that she won’t turn them away. "Many of these kids have fled their country of birth and arrived in Melbourne to stay with surviving family members. They’ve got some big issues to sort out in their lives and playing sport gives them time out. We’ll just have to look for more funding so that everyone who wants to play can play.”

The project was initially managed by a steering committee made up of representatives from the Northern Migrant Resource Centre, Banyule City Council, Banksia Secondary College, the Banksia Basketball Association and the players themselves. Attendance was high to begin with but dwindled after a few months. After a while, Rhonda was effectively running the project single-handedly.

Rhonda knows this wasn’t an ideal situation. Keeping partners engaged over the longer term is a common challenge for many projects and one that is difficult to overcome. “Of course it would have been better to have a greater sense of ownership among the stakeholders, but people are busy with many commitments and too little time.”

Luckily, sustained support has come from several local police officers who have coached the teams in their non-working time.

Sergeant Michael Wells says he’s seen the players develop greater confidence and self-esteem as each season progresses. “They learn to trust each other and get to know us as people, rather than as police officers,” he explains. “Most importantly, the players get an opportunity they otherwise wouldn’t have had.”

Basketball legend Lindsay Gaze has also given a considerable amount of his time to the players. Lindsay tries to attend most training sessions and his enthusiasm for the game is infectious.

Financial sustainability has been an ongoing issue, partly because of the popularity of the project. With a potential financial crisis looming, VicHealth offered to attract media interest in the project to raise awareness and attract new financial supporters.

“Our media coordinator pitched the story to a sports reporter from one of Melbourne’s TV stations,” explains VicHealth senior project officer Kate Rathbun. “After some persistence, the reporter and a cameraman filmed a training session, interviewed Rhonda and Lindsay Gaze and the story ran on the news bulletin the following night.”

“Almost immediately after the story aired we were contacted by the Variety Club,” says Rhonda. “They were keen to talk about offering their support to continue the project. Long live the media!”

While Rhonda says that “she would do it all again”, she says there are some hurdles when working on community-based projects that you simply can’t predict.

With a knowing smile she offers a final bit of advice to anyone starting a project from scratch: “Keep in mind that finding the resources and keeping a project sustainable can take far more time and effort than you think.”
 

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  Bridging gaps with basketball 

Need more info?

Contact the Northern Migrant Resource Centre, phone (03) 9484 7944  

Getting your team on the court

• Understand the issues new arrivals face in their day to day lives
• Explain local rules and the role of referees and officials
• Consider how you will make uniforms available and affordable
• Develop relationships with participants’ families
• Find ways to overcome language barriers