Victoria University professor Ramon Spaaij is leading a community-focussed project on anti-racism in community sport, funded through a VicHealth Impact Research Grant.
Mr Spaaij, who is collaborating on the study with Monash University , said the aim of the project is to enhance equity and inclusion across the Victorian community sport sector so that everyone can enjoy the health benefits of safe and inclusive community sport.
“We don’t really know what effective racism looks like in community sports, but what we do know is that racism continues to be a persistent issue,” he said.
“This affects participation but also the health and social connectedness of people from non English backgrounds or CALD backgrounds.
“So we are really trying to enhance our understanding of what is driving that racism and also how it is changing over time.”
To do this, Mr Spaaij has created a survey in which he hopes to capture that information.
“We are looking for local residents and people in grassroots communities to take part in this survey,“ he said.
“These people might be from sporting clubs or informal sporting groups.
“We are also doing a series of interviews with key experts, both within sport organisations and also community based experts.“
As long as you are over 18-years-old and from the west, you will be able to participate in the survey.
“These people might have been exposed to these barriers so they don’t feel welcome or they’ve experienced forms of discrimination,” he said.
“We want to try to capture what their experience has been like in terms of the types of racism that occur, how often it occurs, and how it’s been dealt with.”
Following the completion of the survey, Mr Spaaij said the survey results will be published in a report to assess the findings.
“This will provide us with the final knowledge to decide which resources we want to develop and what they look like,” said Mr Spaaij.
“These findings will help us identify support organisations to alert the government about what is not working well and identify some ways in which they can start doing things differently.”
Details: monash.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cD4AEjHf169FZ8G
