In October 2011, The Wimmera Regional Sports Assembly through its PICSAR program was able to co-ordinate a program which involved the Horsham Soccer Club and the Karen refugee community of the Nhill area.

The program involved getting the Horsham Soccer club to run a clinic and friendly matches with the Karen community who had previously had no opportunity to partake in their much loved game of soccer.

This program was able to attract 30 participants from the Karen community and has now culminated in the entering of soccer team from the Nhill and District Sporting club.

The Karen refugee’s hold a great number of members in this inaugural team and the Nhill and District sporting club is now underway with purchasing of soccer equipment to be housed at Davis Park in Nhill.

This program has been seen as a large success for the PICSAR program as it has raised participation in the target area of new arrivals and it also has helped with creating more sporting opportunities in the Nhill and surrounding areas.

Case Study Two

The LLEN mentor program was established in 2010 it began as a way for 4 agencies to come together and pool money together to pay for disadvantaged students at the Horsham North Primary School to participate in the local Auskick.

The program started with just 20 kids funded from the North School and then lead to a further 50 kids being funded from different areas identified as disadvantaged from the 5 shires(Yarriambiack, Horsham, West Wimmera, Hindmarsh and Northern Grampians).
Following the success of the Auskick funding the Horsham north Primary School was targeted again in the summer to offer students of the same disadvantaged background to participate in swimming classes at the local Horsham Aquatic Centre.

25 spots were funded for the Swimming program and it was a great success story as many students from the school had never been able to partake in swimming classes before until the mentor program allowed them the chance.

Recently the program has been further developed and is in the process now of being offered to schools in all 5shires again, however this time the 3 options have been made available for students not just solely on Auskick.

Students who are identified as candidates for the program will have the opportunity to partake in Auskick clinic, Junior Netball program or a Junior Hockey program.

Case Study Three

A project through PICSAR which has been developing a number of years has been the work done with the Horsham Cycling Club from early 2010 until 2011.

The first meeting occurred when a community engagement night was held at the cycling club featuring Shane Kelly and future club star Mark O’Brien. Shane was involved earlier in the night in some clinics and then spoke to the club later that night. This began a series of events that followed with Shane Kelly returning to the Wimmera area to complete a series of Bike ED clinics across the Wimmera schools.

The tour reached 7 schools and educated 360 kids on bike safety and also the benefits of participating in cycling. Following the schools tours a 5 week after school program was conducted at the Horsham cycling club attracting 55 kids to register and at the end of the program, 41 new members signed up with the Horsham Cycling Club.

Continuing on after the 5 week program it was assessed that a need for more coaches in the area would be needed so a level 1 coaching course in cycling was conducted with 24 coaches completing the training and giving the Wimmera area more resources in cycling coaching and bike safety.

This program had many partners including Horsham Cycling Club, Active After Schools Communities, Cycling Victoria, Cycling Australia, Grampians Community Health and the schools of the Wimmera area.

This has been a great project for the WRSA and the cycling community and is a great template of how other sports may be able to increase participation.