A group of students from the Fremantle Dockers Sport, Business and Leadership program in partnership with The Purple Hands Foundation have recently completed a four-day major project trip to the Southwest region, with a focus on promoting female football at local clubs and schools.
Students were tasked with the job of organising and fundraising a major project trip that included contacting local schools and football clubs, sourcing equipment, accommodation, transport, food and much more.
The project has been around four months in the making, with the initial planning stages starting in early April.
Taking off on Monday morning, students organised and shared a bus and accommodation ahead of their first clinic session.
The first session delivered on Tuesday morning was at Newton Moore High school where the students worked with a group of Indigenous participants, especially targeting female football and development.
On Tuesday night, the students headed over to South Bunbury Junior Football Club, where they delivered a combined session with the year 6/7’s and the year 8/9’s groups.
The next stop was Carey Park Primary School on Wednesday morning, where around 30 females came down to participate in a skills session, followed by a trip to Dalyellup Junior Football Club at night.
Finally, the students delivered their last clinic at Bunbury Primary School to work with around 80-100 female students across two skills sessions.
Program teacher Liam Thompson made the trip down to Bunbury with the students and spoke about how impressed he was with their management of the major project.
“To be able to celebrate the success with the football club and add some data towards the reach of the Fremantle Football Club as well as celebrate the success of their project at such a young age really sets them apart well with communication, teamwork and networking,” Thompson said.
“It’s a really great testament to the students, it obviously tests them a bit, at times it can get a little bit tough, but the reward is that they’ve been able to roll out a major project at the age of 18/19 that’s based heavily around female participation and has a massive impact.
“From start to finish they ran a really smooth project, I didn’t need to step in at any point, I was basically driving or capturing footage the whole time.
“I was just so impressed with the professionalism of the group from start to finish, from Monday to Thursday they represented themselves, SEDA, Fremantle Dockers and the Purple Hands Foundation really well and they should be really proud of their efforts.”
While the project had many benefits for the participants involved, Thompson also noted that the trip helped to develop stronger relationships between the students.
“There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into it, both in class and then also commitment outside of class, to make it work and make it happen,” Thompson said.
“It’s great to see students outside of the four walls of a classroom as well and really see them excel in a different environment. That’s a really exciting benefit of these projects.
“The students feel like the trip actually brought them a little bit closer together. They weren’t naturally in the same friendship groups in class and don’t normally associate with each other, but the project was able to bring them together.”
The Bunbury major project is the first of four projects that are being delivered by the Sport, Business and Leadership program students.
Two more groups are currently planning for trips to Geraldton and Broome, with the final group preparing to deliver a Starkick All Abilities inclusion carnival here in Perth.
As part of the Broome major project, students will be assisting in the delivery of the Kimberley 9’s program on Cable Beach.
