'Count Me In'

More about 'Count Me In'

For young people from Culturally and Linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and particularly girls, there are many identified barriers to participating in mainstream sport clubs in Australia. These include costs, lack of knowledge of services, discrimination and cultural insensitivity in sporting environments, lack of transport access, culturally-determined gender norms, and competing family priorities and attitudes. Previous research documents the challenges to sports participation experienced by migrant and refugee youth, and guidelines for sports governing bodies and clubs exist to support inclusive practices, but participation rates remain low. Although sport is the vehicle for change, at its core, Count Me In (CMI) aims to improve social inclusion and wellbeing for refugee and migrant families, and strengthen community cohesion by supporting families to engage with mainstream sporting clubs. Based on what we currently know from the evidence base about sports participation interventions, a critical factor of CMI’s model is the employment of bicultural Community Support Coordinators (CSCs) to work directly with migrant and refugee families.