The Central Coast Academy of Sport (CCAS), in partnership with Underwriting Agencies Australia (UAA), has developed the Indigenous Talent Identification Program for athletes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. The program is designed to encourage an active lifestyle and provide assistance in advancing opportunities in sport.
For five years, UAA has been sponsoring the program, which aims to create pathways for indigenous children who may not have had the opportunity to get scholarships into the Academies of Sport.
A Talent Identification Day is held at the academies where 22 athletes are selected from a pool of over a hundred athletes for full scholarships. These scholarships are funded by the UAA and ensures the students receive the best coaching in their chosen sport.
It is a program that Michael ‘Murf’ Murphy, UAA group chief executive officer, is passionate about.
A key element of the sports program is also encouraging its students to further their education. To do so, the UAA also provides work internships for students in year eleven or twelve.
“Let’s say they want to study Construction Management at the University of Newcastle, UAA will provide the individual an internship, during the scholarship, which will avoid them racking up a huge Hex debt or avoid working at a fast-food outlet at the weekends. This will enable them to get work experience while continue with their sporting endeavours,” said Murphy. “The internship will enable them to see the ‘real world’, for example, when they visit a construction site and can see firsthand what things look like when they’ve gone wrong.”
One of the major reasons for UAA’s support is that they write a significant amount of its business in Regional Australia.
“As part of our charter, we have always had the best interests of youth, particularly dis-affected youth, and we saw this as a way of giving back to Regional Australia and to our First Nations People.
“We are confident that we will also be introducing the program with the North Coast Academy of Sport, which is in the Kempsey and Coffs Harbour region, the Western Academy of Sport which covers Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo. This is a key region for us because we cover so much equipment in this area and we will also be working with the Southern Academy of Sport which is the Wagga region,” said Murphy.
“Our Brisbane and Western Australian offices have both agreed to take on indigenous interns as well. One of the issues facing us with the program is longevity, we are concerned that some of the interns will lose enthusiasm for the program and dropout.”
Murphy goes on to describe how the Talent Identification Day works and how talented youngsters are spotted.
According to Murphy, the Talent Identification Day is attended by over 100 youngsters from surrounding schools in the given region. These sporting youngsters have been identified by their Aboriginal Liaison Officers who encourage them to attend. To attend, the youngsters must have parental permission and be attending school.
“On the day, there are a number of stations which focus on the different sports offered in the program and at each of these stations there is an expert on the sport. The Sydney Swans, for example, will be present at the AFL station and each of the experts will identify the talent, both boys and girls. The twenty-two scholarships are then given to these chosen athletes,” said Murphy.
Murphy is passionate about the reasons for wanting to get involved in the program.
“We all see the missed opportunities with today’s youth and there are lots of people with good hearts and best intentions but unless you get in and have a go, best intentions don’t amount to much and nothing will change. ‘Creating Pathways’ for our youth is today’s term and it’s true, they need to be able to see what steps they need to take. We are not just talking about indigenous youth here, we are talking about all youth.
“On the Central Coast for example, and in Australia in general we have one of the highest suicide rates in the world for young men between 18 and 25. Why? Because they can’t see where they are headed. They’ve dropped out of school so they are poorly educated, they can’t get a job and they don’t have a car, what chance do they have? Some people need a little more guidance than others,” he said.
Ian ‘Moose’ Robilliard is the Managing Director for the CCAS. He has been awarded an OAM for his work, predominantly in sport and youth sport in particular. With Murf and Moose having previously played rugby together, both understood the lessons sports could provide.
According to Murf, the internship concept came when they were sitting around one night. With Murf having the funds and passion and Moose having the facilities and know-how, UAA was firmly involved from the get-go.
“The various academy of sports are independent run, this allows for incredible flexibility and speed to adjust a program if required” said Murphy.
“In late April the Regional Academies of Sport (RAS) staged the Your Local Clubs Academy Games, an event where all the academies across NSW come together and compete against each other in a ‘mini-Olympics’ style event. The other academies were there, they’d heard about the program and were all keen to be involved,” he said.
According to Ian Robilliard, the Chairman of the Regional Academies of Sport and Managing Director of the Central Coast Academy, the RAS network is very unique in its reach with currently nine independently operated organisations forming part of the collective.
“Many organisations think Regional Academies of Sport are totally driven around the delivery of sporting programs and while that’s important, we also do much more than that. Indeed, the RAS ‘More Than Sport Strategy’ provides a very clear focus on what is possible outside of our sport programs that help deliver work ready young adults across regional NSW.”
Regions from Albury to Coffs Harbour to Tamworths and beyond will benefit from UAA’s commitment to the Regional Academy network.
“We know a number of the crane owners identify as being indigenous, so we will be encouraging students to study construction, engineering or business management. This will provide a practical understanding of how our insurance business works in these industry sectors.
“We all know sectors of the construction industry are facing the difficulties of an ageing population and over the next five to ten years we are going to see an awful lot of experience lost as a large percentage of the work force moves into retirement. We hope this program will help generate new blood for the industry,” said Murphy.
This article originally appeared in the June edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
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