By Gabriella Payne
The annual Victorian Sport Awards champion the best our state’s sporting clubs and programs have to offer – and this year, the Cardinia Shire Council is in the running to take out one of the top prizes.
Nominated as a finalist for their ‘mental health in sports clubs’ program, the Cardinia Shire Council is excited to have been recognised for their work throughout Melbourne’s 2020 lockdowns, which helped many people remain healthy – both mentally and physically – through a tough period of time.
The Cardinia Shire Council active communities manager, Kristen Jackson, said that it was great to be acknowledged in the ‘Bunnings trade local government initiative of the year’ category for this program, which had helped train clubs in mental health first aid courses throughout the year.
“We are pleased to be a finalist in the Victorian Sport Awards for our ‘mental health in sports clubs’ program,” Ms Jackson said.
“The program was established to help build the capacity of volunteers through a recognised accredited mental health first aid course, in partnership with the Richmond Institute and Monash Health.”
Ms Jackson said that between October and December of last year, the program had helped 24 people from 15 different clubs in the Cardinia Shire to complete the mental health first aid course – and had helped shine a light on the importance of looking after one’s mental health.
Vicsport CEO, Lisa Hasker, applauded the Cardinia Shire Council for their efforts and said that it was “fantastic” to see initiatives like this connecting people with sports throughout the worst of last year’s lockdown.
“It’s fantastic to see lots of councils doing these programs and shows that the hard work they did over Covid to keep [people] connected with sport has worked,” Ms Hasker said.
“Obviously we were worried about people being away from clubs, not having that connection, that comradery and not being with their buddies at sporting clubs – and Cardinia obviously recognised that, which is just fantastic.”
After being deemed a resounding “success”, Ms Jackson said that the program had inspired the council to continue the program into 2021, with another round of participants currently undertaking the same course.
“A further 24 representatives from community organisations such as neighbourhood and community houses, seniors groups, men’s sheds and other not for profit groups, are currently completing their mental health first aid accreditation.”
The awards are set to be held at Marvel Stadium on Thursday 3 June and although it may be a little different from previous years, Ms Hasker said that it looked to be an exciting night.
“It’s just great to be able to show off the work people have done in a really difficult year,” she said.
“It may be different in many ways, but it’s a bit of a silver lining to focus on these particular programs.”
