The health, wellbeing and future prospects for children in remote communities will be winners, through a major extension of the successful John Moriarty Football program to 12 centres across New South Wales and Queensland.
\nThe Liberal National Government is committing up to $4.5 million for the expansion, to be driven through a partnership between the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) and John Moriarty Football (JMF).
\nJMF and FFA will work together to provide senior coaching staff, mentoring, training and education for children involved in the program. FFA will also identify and support pathways to national football programs.
\n\u201cThis is a game-changing move for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, designed to help children between two and 16 to reach their full potential in football, in education and in life,\u201d said Minister for Indigenous Health Ken Wyatt AM.
\n\u201cWe have seen the success in the remote Northern Territory centres of Borroloola and Robinson River which have been involved in the program since it was established in 2012, with more than 90 per cent of children in Borroloola now participating.
\n\u201cTwo hundred children have enrolled each year, including Shay Evans who is now playing with the Westfield Young Matildas.
\n\u201cI congratulate Shay and her fellow JMF scholarship winners but scores of other participants are also continuing to kick personal and life goals, both on and off the field.\u201d
\nThe JMF program is community driven, with children are supported to attend school and make healthier lifestyle choices.
\nThe expanded program will focus on primary health through:<\/p>\n
\u201cJMF is extremely grateful for this very significant funding commitment,\u201d said Moriarty Foundation Managing Director Ros Moriarty. \u201cWe look forward to replicating our model of football as a powerful tool for wellbeing, supporting resilient, healthier outcomes for young players, their families and communities.\u201d The health, wellbeing and future prospects for children in remote communities will be winners, through a major extension of the successful John Moriarty Football program to 12 centres across New South Wales and Queensland. The Liberal National Government is committing up to $4.5 million for the expansion, to be driven through a partnership between the … Continue reading “World Game Partnership to Kick Goals for First Nations Health”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNSW and Queensland communities to participate will be selected on the basis of evidence of strong local interest and intention to embrace the program.
\n“Our game has a deep history of Indigenous participation, and this step will allow us to do so much more to improve health outcomes for Indigenous children,\u201d said Moriarty Foundation Board Member and FFA Board nominee Craig Foster.
\n\u201cFootball has the power to unite the whole community to support opportunity for all young Australians.”
\nFFA Chief Executive David Gallop said FFA had been a keen supporter of John Moriarty Football for several years.
\n\u201cMatildas Head Coach Alen Stajcic has visited Borroloola on a number of occasions and scouted Shay Evans back in 2014,\u201d he said. \u201cThis announcement will help achieve our vision of involving more Indigenous Australians in football, as players, coaches, referees and administrators.
\n\u201cWe look forward to working closely with John Moriarty Football to generate significant health and community benefits while offering a pathway for Indigenous footballers to emulate the success of Young Matilda Shay.\u201d
\nRegular sport and physical activity, particularly for young children, has documented and far reaching health benefits.
\n\u201cIt reduces the risk of obesity, increases cardiovascular fitness, promotes healthy growth of bones and muscles, improves coordination and balance, and gives children a greater self-confidence and belief in their abilities, on and off the sporting field,\u201d said Minister Wyatt.
\n\u201cThe JMF program has the potential to contribute to Closing the Gap in health equality, education and employment, and positively impact on the high chronic disease prevalence rates among First Nations people.\u201d
\nThe three-year funding will be provided through the Indigenous Australians\u2019 Health Programme over 2018\u201319 and 2020\u201321. For more information on John Moriarty Football visit the\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"