"We had to convince the sports centre that this was an ongoing program that could make money and look after itself" – Merrilyn Gamble, project officer

Netball is a popular participation sport, but it has taken a unique partnership to ensure that intellectually disabled people get to play too.  

Thanks to the Creating a Sporting Chance program at the Bundoora Netball & Sports Centre at RMIT, nearly 300 people with intellectual disabilities are signed up in netball programs that are financially sustainable and provide valuable training to new graduates.

Dr Jeff Walkley, an RMIT lecturer, is the man behind the innovative project. “In late 1999 we undertook a small project involving people with intellectual disabilities in cardiovascular fitness. We realised that it improved both physical and mental health, so we were inspired to extend the project. We prepared a plan and decided that to work, our projects had to be evidence-based, low-cost, transferable and sustainable.”

With 12 months of seed funding from VicHealth, the initial project began with six participants. Today, the project helps hundreds of intellectually disabled people across Melbourne.

The project at RMIT is coordinated by the Disability Recreation Alliance, a partnership including the Bundoora Netball & Sports Centre, care agencies working with the intellectually disabled participants, Plenty Valley Netball Association, Nillumbik, Whittlesea and Banyule local councils, and the university.

Developing an effective partnership has been crucial for ensuring that the project could become sustainable. “Making sure that our program would be fully sustainable was one of our main aims,” says Merrilyn Gamble, Project Officer based at Bundoora Netball & Sports Centre.

Ensuring the ongoing viability of the project has been one of the biggest challenges, and successes, of the project. “We always looked at the VicHealth Active Participation Grant as seed funding, just to start us off. We had to convince the sports centre that this was an ongoing program that could make money and look after itself. We were sustainable within the first year,” Merrilyn says.

There are now around 280 intellectually disabled people participating in several Creating a Sporting Chance programs at RMIT. As Merrilyn points out, “That’s a lot of people who bring in $3.50 to $4.50 for each class. Out of that, we can pay for the hire of the sports centre and my wage”.

For Jeff Walkley, watching the project grow from its original seed funding “has been a great experience. This project has been a win-win for everyone,” he says, “with far-reaching benefits”. For people with intellectual disabilities who participate in the program, these benefits include increasing their physical health as well as improving their psychological health and connections to their community.

There are a host of benefits for RMIT students too. “This project gives students experience working with people who have an intellectual disability, and that helps their confidence,” explains Jeff Walkely. “The great thing is that we have a heap of students who want to work in this area now.

The evidence showed that they were not previously considering careers with intellectually disabled people.” Watching fourth year RMIT physical education student Rocky Gentile put his class through their paces, it is clear that the Active Participation Grant has helped to break down traditional barriers between universities and local communities. “They just love it,” Rocky says.

Creating a Sporting Chance has been so successful that VicHealth agreed to extend the project for another 12 months so that it could be developed by Victoria University in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

Anne Browne, a lecturer in Human Movement Studies at Victoria University, says that the program – set-up through the generosity of Jeff Walkley and Merrilyn Gamble and the flow-on effect of their VicHealth Active Participation funding – is working brilliantly.

“Jeff and Merrilyn came to us and said that they had a fantastic program at RMIT and they gave us advice about how to set it up here and helped us approach the appropriate agencies,” Anne says. “Now we’ve got seven agencies, and Brimbank and Maribyrnong Councils, involved too.”

Anne is enthusiastic about the benefits for both the students and the intellectually disabled participants. “The exciting part for our students is that they are getting the chance to work with people with special needs. It means that they have to improve their teaching skills and it helps them to become more patient. “The participants can practise motor coordination and learn how to maximise physical skill and movement. Plus it’s just great psychologically to be mixing with other people their age without feeling isolated.”

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 Creating a sporting chance

Need more info?

Contact the Program Coordinator at the Bundoora Netball & Sports Centre on phone (03) 9925 7999.

Successful and sustainable projects are...

• Evidence-based
• Driven by realistic goals
• Affordable to the target audience
• Based on life after the initial funding grant
• Transferable to other localities and organisations
• A win-win for everyone involved