Gender equality in sport

Gender equality and respectful relationship-focused programs in clubs, leagues and communities.

Healthy Clubs: Preventing family violence through sport

Sport plays a central role in many peoples’ behaviour, culture and values, not only our sporting clubs but our broader communities as well.

That's why we're the lead agency providing Healthy Clubs, a partnership with the Victorian Amateur Football Association, Tennis Victoria and Rugby League Victoria, Melbourne City Football Club, Women’s Health in the North and SBS. The project is designed to promote the link between gender equality; respectful relationships; and the prevention of violence against women, children, and gender diverse people; with clubs and leagues across Victoria.

Using a whole-of-club approach, we work with people across all levels of club hierarchies, from supporters through to executives, to ensure that changes are made universally across the sporting community.

As part of this program, we have developed and delivered healthy relationship workshops that focus on key issues such as gender roles, building healthy and respectful relationships, resilience building and actions that bystanders can take. The program also supports clubs to develop gender equity action plans across the areas of culture, recruitment, leadership, participation, and facilities.

'Lots of women and gender-diverse people are wanting to play sport and they're coming into clubs that are traditionally male-dominated,' our Program Leader Dominic Alford said in an interview with BBC news.

'It's a bit of a challenge for those clubs to make the shift to include those people. We talk about respectful relationships and building resilience so they can go out and have those conversations with each other in their sporting clubs but also in their personal life and in their community.'

The program focuses strongly on intersectionality, cultural diversity, and the development of culturally safe learning content, as well as promoting different forms of masculinity by supporting men to transition into and throughout fatherhood.

Workshops have been incredibly well received, with 98% of participants very satisfied with the session.

Healthy Clubs is delivered with support from the Victorian Government’s Preventing Violence Through Sport Grants Program.

Man Up! Creating Respectful Relationships

Our Man Up! program uses football as a vehicle to support respectful relationships between young people across our funded areas in south-east Melbourne. It aims to promote and support gender inclusion and equality, improve mental health, and ultimately, contribute to safer communities.

The program is funded by Sports and Recreation Victoria and delivered in partnership with Melbourne City Football Club and its charitable arm City in the Community.

Supporting your sporting community

We can tailor or develop programs for other specific sporting clubs and codes, including in relation to healthy relationships, respect, gender equality, and health and wellbeing.