Valley Sport Update - March 2023

March 30, 2023

Strategic planning Workshop

Are you a club committee member looking to find out more about developing a strategic plan at your club?

Join us this April for our FREE strategic planning workshop. Details are below

  • Monday 3rd April 2023

  • 7PM - 8.30PM

  • Online Workshop - Register Here

  • FREE

The workshop will:

  • Help you understand why it is important for your club to have a strategic plan.

  • Educate, upskill, and build your confidence in writing a strategic plan for your club!

  • Help you better understand the strategic planning process.

  • Give exclusive access and insight into our newly designed Strategic Planning Services - launching soon!

For more information, or to discuss strategic planning at your club, please contact [email protected] or call 5831 8456.

Grant Writing Workshop

Applying for grants can sometimes be overwhelming; knowing where to look for grants, understanding the guidelines and knowing how to best ‘sell’ your project can be daunting. It takes a wide range of skills to write a successful grant application.

Join us this April for our FREE online Grant Writing Workshop. Details are below

  • Wednesday 26th April 2023

  • 7PM - 8.30PM

  • Online Workshop - Register Here

  • FREE

The workshop will:

  • Broadly educate, upskill, and build your confidence in applying for grants!

  • Help you better understand the grant writing process.

  • Help identify resources for finding grants.

  • Give exclusive access and insight into the GRANT SMARTS Program - PLANNED, PROACTIVE, PROGRESS launching soon!

For more information, please contact [email protected] or 5831 8456

2023 GV Harmony Cup A Success

With rain threating the cancelation of the event the night before, organisers we're thrilled to be met with sunshine Wednesday morning for the pitch inspection. This years 2023 All Abilities Harmony Cup saw schools and service providers from all over Central and Northern Victoria come together after months of practicing to take part in the Cups 7th year.

The round robin style event provides an opportunity for people with a disability to learn cricket for the first time or put their practiced skills to action, and allows everyone to participate. The day shines a light on and celebrates the wonderful contribution people with a disability, their families, careers, and volunteers make to community sport.

A big congratulations to the events organisers Shepparton/Youth Club United Cricket Club, Cricket Victoria and SEDA Collage along with many other community supporters that help support the event every year. Special mentions go out to the Greater Shepparton City Council, Shepparton Ethnic Council, GV Water, Shepparton Police and first aid volunteer Michelle Viney.

After three rounds of non stop action, Cobram District Special School made it to the top of the ladder to take out the division 1 win. While Shepp Access White took out division 2 after a neck and neck battle with Connect GV in the final round. All the participants on the day showed off their cricket skills and sportsperson-ship and we look forward to doing it all again next year!

Greater Shepparton Active Women & Girls Network Launches

On the 8th of March 2023, International Women’s Day, Valley Sport facilitated the inaugural Greater Shepparton Active Women and Girls Network Launch. Valley Sport Project Officer Lucy Marino opened the evening buy sharing and explaining the networks objectives, structure, and importance.

The group then heard from a range of inspirational guest speakers starting off with Alex from Vic Health and This Girl Can Ambassador Samantha who talked about the This Girl Can Campaign and provided a Q & A with Samantha that highlighted how everyday women and girls can get involved in sport no matter their age, body type or background or previous sporting experience.

Head PE Coordinator Elisha Fiddes from the Greater Shepparton Secondary Collage then talked about the schools’ Girls Only Lunchtime Program and highlighted the importance of providing safe spaces for girls to feel safe and comfortable and how doing so has helped participants of the lunchtime program to be more physically active or even to come along and try sport for the first time.

The last guest speaker for the night, Hope Irvine spoke about her extensive sports journey through from being an athlete, coach, volunteer, and sport and working within the sport and rec industry. Hope’s story explores the important role sport has played in her personal and professional life as well as showcases her passion for wanting to provide more pathways for women and girls from rural communities to be able to participate in sport.

By sharing their stories our wonderful guest speakers provide a great example of how the network can empower women and girls to participate in many different levels of sport and active recreation, create connections and share ideas.

Finally, the group participated in an interactive planning activity that brainstormed for key areas for the network to work towards, these included: key pillars for the network to adopt, areas of interest the group would like to upskill in or learn more about, key deliverables the group might like to have a go at delivering and lastly ideas for next sessions theme that they would like to cover.

As such the theme for the next session will focus on the networks online presence and building the social media platform with a targeted approach.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the network, please sign up here

Shepparton Multicultural Stand-Up Paddle Boarding

During February and March, Valley Sport alongside Surfing Victoria have been down at Shepparton's Victoria Park lake delivering SUP sessions for the multicultural community of Shepparton. Each session was well attended with over 20+ participants at each night.

The program provided a fantastic opportunity for participants to become familiar with water based activities and learn the importance of being safe around water.

Business and Community Sport Flood Recovery Grants

Grants are now available to support flood-affected Victorian businesses, not-for-profit or community sport and active recreation organisations in eligible local government areas.If

If your business or organisation has experienced direct damage to your property, assets, stock or equipment during the recent Victorian floods you may be eligible for up to $50,000.The grant can be used to cover eligible expenses to help you clean up, recover and resume operating as quickly as possible. To apply for the Flood Recovery Grant, you need to first successfully apply for the $5000 one-off grant (Please note the $5,000 grants have now closed)

This program is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

For information or to apply, see: business.vic.gov.au/floodrecovery This program is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

Closes: 1 May 2023

Emergency Sporting Equipment Grant Program

The Emergency Sporting Equipment Grant Program helps Victorian sport and active recreation community organisations replace Essential Sports Equipment that has been lost or destroyed as a consequence of unpreventable and exceptional events such as fire, flood, significant storms, theft or criminal damage.

Grants of up to $2,000 (excluding GST) are available towards the replacement cost of the lost or damaged equipment that is owned by the applicant organisation.  Closes: 31 May 2023For more information, please visit: https://sport.vic.gov.au/grants-and-funding/our-grants/emergency-sporting-and-recreational-equipment

Get Active Kids Voucher Program

The Get Active Kids Voucher Program provides a voucher valued up to $200 for each child for costs associated with participation in organised sport and active recreation activities. Eligible costs include membership and registration fees associated with participation.

To be eligible for a voucher your child/dependant must be:

  • aged 0 to 18 years

  • a resident in Victoria

  • named on a current (at the time of your application) Australian Government Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card, and

  • named on a valid Australian Government Medicare card

Closes: 5:00pm, 10 May 2023 To find out more information, please visit: https://valleysport.net.au/get-active-kids-voucher-program/

AFL Strategic Community Investment Fund

The Strategic Community Investment Fund (SCIF) is designed to financially assist initiatives that can support Community Clubs affiliated to AFL Victoria in three key strategic areas:

  • Grow and assist volunteer capacity.

  • Grow and diversify participation.

  • Improve club environments and player experiences.

Examples of eligible projects include:

  • Improving club financial practices such as upgrading from manual cash handling to electronic POS processes

  • Subsidies for training and playing uniform and boots, registration and membership, up to $750 per player, etc

  • Safety netting behind the goal posts

Applications will be assessed monthly.For more information, please visit: https://www.aflvic.com.au/facilities-funding/strategic-community-investment-fund

Our Sporting Future Grant

The Our Sporting Future Program has been established to assist community sporting organisations with the implementation of small to medium sized facility development projects and development programs for new and emerging sporting organisations across the municipality. There are five funding categories:

  • Minor: will accommodate projects on a $1 to $1 basis requesting assistance from Council of up to, but not exceeding $15,000

  • Major: will accommodate projects on a $1 to $1 basis requesting assistance from the Council of up to, but not exceeding $30,000. There is no in-kind component for Major projects.

  • Sports Aid: will provide funding between $500 and $5,000 (without matching contributions)

  • Women and Girls: will provide funding towards programs that increase opportunities for women and girls in sports clubs for development programs or training between $500 and $10,000.

  • Youth Participation: will provide funding towards initiatives to increase participation in sport for teams/sport between sixteen and eighteen years of age where significant decrease in participation has occurred over previous 1-3 years, for between $500 and $5,000  

Closes: 28 April 2023

Stronger Communities Programme

The Stronger Communities Programme provides up to $20,000 in funding.

The objective of the program is to deliver social benefits for local communities. The intended outcomes of the program are to:

  • Encourage and support participation in local projects

  • Improve local community participation

  • Contribute to vibrant and viable communities

Closes: 10 May 2023

If you have any questions or would like assistance applying for any of the above grants, please don’t hesitate to get in contact.

Follow the Valley Sport Facebook page to keep up to date with resources and tips that will be useful for you and your club during this unprecedented period. We encourage you to share our posts with your members. Please click here: facebook.com/ValleySport.GVSA

Valley Sport are always here to support your club and you can reach us via the platforms below:

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