The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing (ORSR) recognises that sport and active recreation are vital to the health and wellbeing of all individuals. Every person, regardless of their age, ability, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, cultural background, or any other characteristic, deserves to feel welcome, included, and supported in their journey within sporting clubs and organisations. Creating a welcoming community ensures that everyone has an opportunity to participate in and benefit from sport and active recreation as a player, official, coach, administrator, or any other role they choose.
This can include actions such as removing barriers to participation, offering tailored or alternative formats of your sport to meet the needs of different communities, and ensuring diverse perspectives are represented in decision-making processes.
The information below offers practical guidance and resources to help you better support under-served and under-represented groups within your sport or active recreation environment, and to meaningfully include them in your organisation’s programs and offerings.
With the growth of women’s and girls’ participation in sport, and the subsequent increased demand for sport and recreation playing fields, courts and spaces, it has been identified that training for women and girls is often relegated to the back oval or a secondary venue, an earlier/later time slot than preferred or not allocated a time at all.
ORSR has developed the Equal Access and Scheduling Policy Template to allow any sport or active recreation organisation, council, or facility owner/manager to edit and adapt the template to develop their own policy: Equal Access and Scheduling Policy
The Equal Access and Scheduling Policy Template supports the delivery of one of the Women in Sport Taskforce’s key priorities to ensure women and girls have equal access to sporting facilities.
Encouraging policy development
The Equal Access and Scheduling Policy Template should prompt facility owners and managers to consider creating or reviewing their own equal access and scheduling policy to ensure women and girls have equal access. Particularly at the most popular times for competition and training, providing gender equitable access to sports facilities across South Australia.
Using the policy template
The policy template can be used by any sport or recreation organisation, council or facility owner/manager. Such organisations are encouraged to use the template as a starting point for developing their own Equal Access and Scheduling Policy. It can and should be edited and adapted to suit the specific needs of the organisation. The policy should clearly outline an organisations commitment to providing equitable access to facilities and programs for women and girls. It should also outline compliance, monitoring and responsibilities to enable equal access and scheduling.
This template policy is not intended to influence the scheduling of matches or initiatives that are determined by an outside party (i.e. league scheduled match times).
The Power of Her Infrastructure and Participation Program
Adoption and ongoing review of an Equal Access and Scheduling Policy is a requirement for recipients of The Power of Her Infrastructure and Participation Program to ensure funded projects deliver on the equal access, gender equity and female participation outcomes of the grant program.
Women and girls remain under-served in sport when compared to men and boys. It is of critical importance that sport and recreation organisations continue to increase the representation of women and girls to better reflect Australian society and create a more equitable and inclusive environment.
The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing has developed resources to assist organisations in their efforts to increase female membership and representation.
Supporting the Women in Sport Taskforce
The State Government is serious about backing women and girls in sport and is working to ensure they can equally and actively participate in the sport they love.
The Women in Sport Taskforce provides advice to the State Government on methods to promote women’s participation and leadership in sport and address the issues inhibiting women and girls participating fully in their sporting passions.
Inclusive Uniform Guidelines
Designed to help sport and active recreation organisations to create more inclusive options for women and girls to ensure they feel comfortable and confident participating in their chosen sport: Inclusive Uniform Guidelines
Gender Play Gap Guidelines
These practical, evidence-based guidelines are designed to support sport and active recreation organisations to re-engage women and girls who have previously stepped away from sport: Gender Play Gap Guidelines
Further information and resources to help you to make your programs inclusive of women and girls:
Women and girls | Australian Sports Commission (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site)
Learn about how the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing is encouraging greater gender equity in sport leadership across South Australia and in line with national policies by viewing the "40% women in leadership section" here.
People with disability should have equal opportunities to participate in every aspect of life, including involvement in high performance and/or community sport and active recreation.
The South Australian Sports Institute’s newly established Para Unit (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) aims to create additional opportunities for people with a disability to be discovered, and to provide world-class services to support athletes on their pathway from identification through to the Paralympics.
For information and resources to help you to make your programs inclusive of those with disabilities, visit:
People with Disability | Australian Sports Commission (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site) (external site)
Sport and active recreation play a vital role in supporting the health, wellbeing, and cultural connection of First Nations peoples. ORSR is committed to fostering greater inclusion and increasing participation of First Nations communities in sport and active recreation as participants, coaches, officials, administrators, and leaders.
For information and resources to help you to make your programs inclusive of First Nations people, visit:
ORSR is committed to reconciliation, and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land, sea and waterways on which we live, work and play and acknowledges the immense contribution to sport made by First Nations peoples and endeavour to promote their ongoing achievements and involvement within sport while working towards a more just and equitable society for all.
To support this commitment, ORSR is proud to share with you, our people and partners, our Reconciliation Action Plan.
Many sport and active recreation organisations are adapting how they deliver their programs to suit the needs of older adults so that they can enjoy the health benefits of regular movement and the social benefits of interacting with others in a sport setting.
For information on sport active adults, visit:
Multicultural communities encompass people who are born overseas or who are Australian born with one or both parents (or grandparents) born overseas. Increasing participation of multicultural communities provides opportunities for South Australian active recreation and sporting organisations to expand their membership and bring people with different perspectives, experiences and backgrounds into decision-making roles within their organisation.
For information and resources to help you to make your programs inclusive of multicultural communities:
LGBTIQ+ is an inclusive term used to collectively embrace the diverse community of people with sexual orientations and gender identities. It encompasses people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender diverse, intersex, queer and other sexual orientations, gender identities and sex characteristics.
Research shows that LGBTIQ+ people may face discrimination within sporting environments, which can reduce their ability to participate in sport and have detrimental impacts on their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
For information and resources to help you to make your programs inclusive of LGBTIQ+ community:
