Sports and Recreation Strategy

Sport and recreation plays an important role in maintaining and improving the health and wellbeing of the Boroondara community. The purpose of the Sport and Recreation Strategy is to provide a roadmap for further development of sport and recreation to enable more people to be more active more often. It has been developed to identify sport and recreation trends and challenges facing Boroondara and provides direction to enable Council and other stakeholders to respond appropriately. The Sport and Recreation Strategy is closely aligned to the Boroondara Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2013-17, because of its potential to impact the overall health and wellbeing of members of the community and the Boroondara Open Space Strategy because of its need for well maintained, accessible and safe open spaces. Many other Council plans and strategies have also influenced the Sport and Recreation Strategy. Over 3,400 people helped inform the research and direction of the Strategy. Council appreciates and values this input. A sport and recreation audit was undertaken to gauge participation and facility provision for sport and recreation activities in Boroondara. This audit also included three statistically valid surveys covering all age groups. The findings from these surveys are supplemented with supporting data from consultation via workshops, world cafes, advisory committees, interviews and community surveys. Extensive research and policy scans were also undertaken on international, national, state and local policies. Key highlights from the research indicate that participation in sport and recreation is an
important contributor to physical and mental health and wellbeing. It has social and economic benefits that impact locally through enabling greater connection and cohesion and creating local business opportunities. This is demonstrated by the Boroondara community through by higher sport and recreation participation than the Australian and Victorian average. Despite this, 25% of Boroondara residents are not achieving the minimal physical activity recommendations. Volunteerism is a key feature of the sport and recreation industry. Research indicated that
retaining and recruiting volunteers is a challenge for sporting clubs and survey results indicated that there are young people who want to volunteer at sport and recreation activities but currently do not. There are opportunities to connect potential volunteers to Boroondara sporting clubs. While Boroondara is well serviced by open space and facilities, there is an indication that as the population grows and sport and recreation continue to be an important part of the lives of
people, the current facilities and services and the way they are currently being used may not be adequate. It has been identified there is strong demand for the use of sports grounds by a broad range of users. Maintaining a balance between both structured and unstructured sport and recreation as well as informal use of open space is important and where possible will be encouraged to coexist in the same space. Similarly it has been identified that the demand for indoor courts within highball stadiums are reaching capacity at peak times and opportunities should be explored to partner with local schools to increase capacity and community access. It has also been found that there is demand for a skate and BMX facility in the north of the municipality to meet the needs of young people and families. Lastly, hockey is experiencing capacity challenges for training and competition. Opportunities have been identified to explore the use of school facilities to meet demand.