TS4A - Case for Support

CASE FOR SUPPORT

Because no child should miss out on the opportunity to play sport.

“For the boys + girls that TS4A helps,

sport can be a ray of hope - a circuit breaker for them and their families.”

Hampton VIC 3188 hello@teamsports4all.com.au www.teamsports4all.com.au +61 (0) 433 776076

Contents Who We Help

4

What Sport Costs

4

Benefits of Sport

5

What We Do

6

Our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal

7

How You Can Help Us

8

Meet Our TS4A Ambassadors

9

Case Studies

10

From the Chairperson

10

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

3

Who We Help Team Sports 4 All helps socioeconomically disadvantaged children participate in club sport within their community.

These kids are from the poorest and most marginalised parts of our society. Due to their financial disadvantage, these kids and their family members are more likely to: • experience trauma • have lower educational outcomes • battle with mental health issues • experience or participate in criminal activity • have poorer health and shorter life expectancy Their disadvantage is often multi-generational.

This can also extend to some members of our refugee communities who are escaping violence and prosecution from their home countries, and seeking a better life in Australia.

For the boys and girls that TS4A helps, sport can be a ray of hope - a circuit breaker for them and their families.

What Sport Costs For all its myriad benefits, playing sport can be an expensive activity, taking it out of reach for families of limited financial means.

Depending on the sport and the competition, registration for a single season of junior sport costs in the range of $250-$800. And that doesn’t include the cost of clothing, footwear,

4

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

uniforms and equipment, all of which can add hundreds of dollars more to the total expense of one child playing. For many families, the scale of this expense is simply not something that their household budget can afford. So, their child misses out. And if there is more than one child in the family – they all miss out.

Benefits of Sport There is arguably nothing more central to Australian society than sport. We play it at school in PE classes and in the schoolyard, we watch it on the TV and in person, and we play in local teams as kids and as adults.

• Social Inclusion – It is well documented that children from lower socio-economic backgrounds experience a higher level of social isolation through their childhood and into adulthood. Sporting clubs offer a way to reduce social isolation.

For so many Australians, playing sport is a given. We play sport because we enjoy it, but there are numerous individual and societal dividends to sports participation.

• Better Health Outcomes – With each successive generation, our lives are becoming more sedentary. The incidence of Obesity, Type II Diabetes and other diet/lifestyle health conditions are all on the rise in Australia despite improved education and awareness of these conditions. More than ever, physical activity through sport is a crucial health consideration.

• Development & Education – Children who participate in club sports are more likely to achieve higher levels of development, and are more likely to attain a higher level of secondary and tertiary education.

• Reduced Crime & Drug Rates – Participation in team sport reduces rates of juvenile delinquency, drug use, and involvement in criminal activity. Sporting clubs give marginalised kids a chance to be part of a good gang, not a bad gang.

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

5

What We Do How Kids Find Us The families with children who need the help of TS4A are usually already connected with and supported by community service organisations – organisations whose remit rarely extends to funding children to play sport. So, TS4A develops relationships with all the relevant community service organisation in each region, and they in turn connect us with kids who want to play sport.

Schools are also adept at identifying kids who might need our help, so we make Principals, Welfare Officers and PE Teachers at local schools aware of what we do. And, as the general public hears more about TS4A, word of mouth increasingly leads to families who need our support reaching out to us directly.

Once we are connected to a new family, TS4A volunteers meet the family in person at the family home to assess their needs and determine their eligibility for TS4A support.

Getting Them Started Having met a new family and child that needs our support, we: • Help them decide on a sport and club.

• Connect them with the relevant person at their chosen club (e.g, Team Manager, Coach).

• Complete the sport, club and team registration.

• Pay for their registration.

• Provide (and pay for) clothing, equipment and team uniform.

Keeping Them Playing Our aim is to not just give kids a start in sport, but to keep them playing – so we work hard to keep them playing sport season after season. To achieve this, each family is assigned to one of our team of Sports Mentor volunteers who keeps in regular contact with them to ensure that they are attending training, competing in games, and staying involved in their club. When it seems like their sporting participation might fall off the rails, we’re there to prop them up and keep them going.

Keeping Them Supported Many of the families and kids that we help also need the support of community support organisations. So, when they have a need for support that falls outside of sport, we connect them with those organisations.

6

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

A

Our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal 2021

Kids p teers, , 19 volun 4 regions 203K annual $ 1.4 staff, . & $203K funds req nds req. e fu cumulativ

In 2020 and 2021 we expanded to cover a larger portion of that same region. Now, with a decade of experience under our belt, we are ready to accelerate our expansion and support more kids throughout Melbourne. And once that has been achieved, we plan to cover all of Victoria - and eventually all of Australia. Here’s what it looks like...

20

Big GOA 22 L

BIG

0 , 1la5 ying sport

From little things, big things grow.

Since our founding in 2011 through to 2019, all of the families supported by TS4A were from a small part of South East Melbourne.

350

Kids p 8 region laying spor t, s 2.6 staff, , 47 volunteers, $ funds re 450K annual cumulat q. & $653K ive fund s req.

2024

, Y R I A H , BIG AL O G S U O I AUDASC

2000

, ing spor t y a l p s d i K teers, n u l o v 0 5 s, 2 16 region nnual a M 9 2 .3 $1 3.5 staff, $2.734M & . q e r s d fun s req. d n u f e v i t cumula

2023

oal Big, AUDASCIOUS G

890

Kids playing spor t, eers, 12 regions, 111 volunt nds fu al nu 3 staff, $752K an ive at ul req. & $1.405M cum funds req.

To do all of that, we need to dramatically increase our funding. This additional funding is needed for three primary purposes: 1. Funding more kids – At an average of $500 per kid that we support each season, our growth from the current 100 kids to 2,000 by 2023 will require a total of nearly $2.8m.

2. Capacity Building – The TS4A crew is comprised mostly of volunteers. However, to become an organisation that supports 2,000+ kids will require us to build a small team of skilled and experienced employees who will be responsible for fundraising, coordination of a large team of volunteers, and liaison with sporting clubs, schools and community service providers.

3. Endowment – Eventually, our goal is to build a financial base that allows us to invest capital and use those investment returns to fund TS4A operations.

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

7

How You Can Help Us Foundational Supporter

Connect Us with Others

Our Big Hairy Audacious Ambition requires us to ‘move the dial’ on fundraising. The TS4A plan sees the number of kids we support increase each year.

Each new kid that we support in any given year needs funding the following year, and the following year…

So, as we grow, we need financial support that is recurring. Our Foundational Supporters commit to an ongoing level of financial support each year.

If you know someone who you think our cause would resonate with, then we would love it if you could connect us with them. They might choose to support us financially, assist us with in-kind support, become part of the TS4A team as a volunteer, or connect us with kids and families who need our support.

Make a One-Off Donation Every dollar helps. We warmly welcome any and every donation that helps us with our Big Hairy Audacious Ambition.

8

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

TS4A has Deductable Gift Recipient status, so all donations are tax deductable. (Donations under $2 are not tax deductable).

Meet Our TS4A Ambassadors We are lucky to be supported by a number of professional athletes who volunteer their profile and time to TS4A. Let us introduce some of them to you…

Reece Hodge

Australian rugby union – Melbourne Rebels “Team sports teaches you the value of working with others towards a common goal, and are also really important in learning how to be resilient! I strongly believe that every kid should have the opportunity to learn these skills, and most importantly have fun outdoors with their friends. I would love to help TS4A make this possible for the kids of Melbourne.”

Sophie Alexander AFLW Collingwood

“TS4A is such an important concept for me as I think the value team sport has on a child growing up is immense. Despite all the health benefits, team sport provides a social outlet and sense of belonging. I have met some of my best friends through playing team sport and I strongly believe every child deserves the opportunity to become a part of a community of people within that sport and create some lifelong friends.“

Harry McKay AFL Carlton

“Team sport has been a massive, positive influence in my life, both on and off the field. I can’t imagine how tough it must be for the kids – and families – who just want to get out there and have a go, but their financial circumstances don’t stretch that far. TS4A is a great program which allows for all kids to play sport no matter what their circumstances are.”

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

9

Case Study Jasmine* was a shy 13-year-old girl who was clearly struggling. She came from a fragile, separated family and she found her parent’s separation very difficult.

Jasmine’s mother was suffering from significant mental health complications and her older sister took on the role as Jasmine’s primary care giver.

Jasmine was struggling with her schooling and was also suffering from mental health complications of her own which led to several admissions to hospital in order to help her with her deep low.

Participation in sport had been suggested to Jasmine as a means to help support her recovery however, she had no means of affording the participation fees or sporting equipment costs associated with this. It was at this point in time that her phycologist referred her to Team Sports 4 All.

*Names have been changed to protect anonymity.

When TS4A first met Jasmine, her self-confidence was so low that she couldn’t raise her gaze from the floor and make eye contact with us. We asked her what interests she had, and how we might be able to support her. After some gentle coaxing, Jasmine shared with us that she had played some volleyball in PE at school, and that maybe she could try playing volleyball at a club. One of our TS4A volunteers immediately began contacting local volleyball clubs. Within a few days the TS4A volunteer had Jasmine at training to see if this was a sport she wanted to play. And play, she did.

Starting in the U14 team, she played her first few competitive matches and was immediately hooked.

It wasn’t long until volleyball was her saviour – it was a safe place, a place where she quickly developed new friendships, found adult mentors, built confidence and resilience. Jasmine had found a focus that kick-started a new version of her life.

Now, Jasmine is a happy, motivated and confident 18-year-old who has finished high school, is aiming to pursue studies, a career in youth services and is on top of her mental health.

And she still plays volleyball!

From the Chairperson Many of us are looking for more meaningful ways to make positive contributions to society, and do it in a way that resonates with us – something we can be passionate about.

When I discovered TS4A in 2016, the penny dropped for me. Here was a cause where the individual and societal benefits were immediately self-evident, and where the pathway to making a difference was so simple. And no other charity organisation seemed to be doing what TS4A did.

It resonated with me immediately… sport, local, helping disadvantaged kids. And since becoming involved, I have seen first-hand, on numerous occasions, the life-changing impact that sport participation has had for many TS4A kids.

I know we’ve made a massive difference. Which is why we desperately want to have that same impact for more kids… many more kids. In reality, we have only just scratched the surface. The number of kids we help is in the hundreds, and we know it can and should be in the thousands. Help us get there.

Cameron Dare, Chairperson 10

Team Sports 4 All : Case for Support

Hampton VIC 3188 hello@teamsports4all.com.au www.teamsports4all.com.au +61 (0) 433 776076