Pivoting with the ball: how one organisation is preventing alcohol and drug use via an online program

Tips for digitising health promotion during coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown many organisations into the deep end of learning about technology and ways to maintain communication and ongoing participation in health promotion activities.

While delivering a sports or health promotion program online takes some preparation, you don’t have to do it alone. VicHealth has put together a series of fact sheets on digitisation, providing tips and information to help you adapt your programs.

Pivoting with the ball: a sports case study from the Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF)

Hoops at Night, a program created by Baw Baw Local Drug Action Team (LDAT), was originally developed as a free 6-week basketball tournament so that young people could meet up for a fun, safe activity and to prevent alcohol or drug (AOD) use.

“We were lucky enough to have a Lead Project Officer in the area who plays basketball and she set up the program,” says Clint Proctor, Senior Community Development Officer at ADF, which supports the project.

Moving the physical program online

“But when coronavirus happened, we thought, how can we adapt to this?” Clint explained, realising that, as a result of coronavirus restrictions, the basketball round-robin couldn’t go forward in person.

“So, we did some searching, used our networks and found some gamers who could set up an online competition for us,” Clint said.

As a result, the LDAT plans to move forward with an online tournament using an NBA Xbox game, to connect young people online as an alternative to the physical setting.

And, while providing this online connection, volunteers will be able to talk to young people and provide them with access to AOD advice and other local youth services.

Clint sees this as a real opportunity to adapt the program for the future.

“I’m an optimistic person and I think we have to be bold and try something new and see what we can learn from this”.

Tips for delivering a sports or health promotion program online

1. Decide whether you want your session to be pre-recorded or livestream – pre-recording can help you manage audio and the script, but a livestream will let you interact in real time with your participants.

2. Check out what similar organisations are doing.

3. Try to involve participants in the delivery plan and check your delivery method is compatible with platforms they already use (e.g. Google Hangouts/Zoom/Skype or others).

4. Allow time to test and refine your setup and take on any feedback.

To get more detailed information, download the fact sheets from VicHealth’s Coronavirus Health Promotion Resources Hub: www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/publications/covid-resources-downloads#deliveringhp