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South West Indigenous Network – SWIN
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How do you network ten individual Sport and Recreation Development Officers looking after small Western Queensland communities in outback Australia that cover a land area about the same size as France?

Almost every small community in Western Queensland has an Aboriginal Housing co-operative or development agency and many have sport and recreation development officers employed.

The problem was that these officers worked in isolation, had little access to professional support and training and were usually the only people working in sport and recreation for many hundreds of kilometres. 

About 10 years ago a dedicated group of government workers and interested community members started an informal network of sport and recreation development officers called SWIN.

Building a sport and recreation network
The initial aims of the group were modest requiring the group to “Meet at least 3 times a year to share stories, lend and borrow resources and learn new skills”. 

New members came and went but the goodwill remained because members always found some practical benefit from the meetings, whether it was a simpler way to ‘keep accounts’ or a better way to ‘teach ball sports’. The skill and professionalism of the group steadily increased. 

Earlier this year SWIN became legally incorporated as a community organisation and successfully bid for a Government contract to supply Indigenous sport and recreation services to South West Queensland.

SWIN is now working with community, state and federal government agencies to increase and improve sport and recreation services in outback Australia. 

Recommendations
The rules learnt from this decade long journey can be applied to any community wishing to use sport and recreation as a community development tool: 

  • Start simple,
  • Take your time,
  • Build trust and rapport first, outcomes later,
  • Practical help works best.

 Check out SWIN

[This article has been edited by the Operating Team]

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