Hope, Health & Heroes: Inspiring Australian Communities to live better lives

Whilst we all enjoy playing and watching football it is often easy to forget the power our game has to improve the lives of people in Australian communities.  Football is not just about the 90 minutes played between two teams every weekend.  It also plays a significant role in bringing communities together, promoting lifestyle improvement and creating hope and opportunities for individuals of all backgrounds. 

In 2009, the PFA will launch community initiatives that mentor young people and focus on improving the health of Australians that live in disadvantaged areas of the community.

Our community program will harness the innate skills and attributes possessed by elite footballers and use them as a method for inspiring Australian communities in a way few stakeholders otherwise can. These skills and attributes include leadership, discipline, courage, adaptability and dedication and are all elements that drive success in life away from the football field – just as they do throughout a long and successful playing career.

In addition to positively influencing the lives of Australians, the PFA’s community initiatives will play a vital role in the development of ‘off field’ skills for our members.  Our members will develop the confidence to use their core skills away from the field of play and this confidence will be valuable to them when they are challenged with the task of forging a new career beyond the football field once their playing days are complete.

The link between our two Community programs

Our community programs focus on mentoring young people and improving Male health outcomes among the disadvantaged pockets of urban Australia. 

There is a significant amount of research highlighting that children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds tend to achieve less at school and, are less likely to stay on at school or enter further or higher education. They are also more likely in the future to be unemployed or in low paid jobs.

These students have higher levels of ‘in classroom’ need and require additional teaching support to achieve the same learning outcomes attained by other groups of students in our society.

The research has also found that there is a strong correlation between the children with the greatest learning needs and their parents’ occupation.  

These programs will not only improve the lives of those we touch, but also position football as a responsible and caring industry and contribute to the personal development of the players involved in the delivery of the programs.

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