“Sport has the power to unite people in a way little else can. Sport can create hope. Breaks down racial barriers……and speaks to people in a language they can understand.” – Nelson Mandela
Sport is not always about winning, it’s about helping to build stronger, healthier, happier, and safer communities and individuals. Sport offers health benefits, crime prevention and economic benefits.
Participation in sport and recreation provides clear benefits in the five Australian national health priorities:
• Promoting better mental health.
• Cardiovascular disease prevention.
• Diabetes prevention and control.
• Primary prevention of some cancers.
• Injury prevention.
Sport and recreation can help to divert young people from crime and anti-social behaviours. It can also target those young people most at risk of committing crime and help their rehabilitation and development. For young people being in a club culture can provide access to strong role models, a sense of inclusiveness and a lack of isolation.
SPR is of far more significance to the welfare of the community than the discrete economic impacts of elite sport. The taxation revenue that governments earn from SPR is also greater than the money they spend on the same. SPR is an industry that influences economic activity across almost the entire spectrum of government and commercial interests. according to a Report by P Muller, A Wadsley, D Adams , D Arthur and B Felmingham, 2010, The Value of Sport and Physical Recreation to Tasmania, the purpose of which was to show the economically real and significant value of sport and physical recreation in Tasmania.
Sport and recreation provides the catalyst for community gatherings, from small to major events, where people can interact on many levels reaching many within our society.
Sport helps to build communities and provides a sense of engagement. It binds families through shared experiences and shared achievements from early ages and through continued participation, sport can help avert anti-social behaviour.
Sport contributes to economic growth through business investment and employment, and helps sustain the environment through protecting open space and natural areas. It also promotes the use of active modes of transport, such as cycling and walking.
We unite as a nation through sport; we bear witness to people of different race, religion and culture being drawn together. Sport instils a sense of national pride when Australian competitors compete on the world stage uniting the general community, Governments and business leaders alike. Sport is a universal language!
*Debra Thurley is a candidate for the Clarence City Council elections. Debra aims if elected Alderman to promote the value of sport to the community and work for the improvement of facilities throughout the Eastern Shore via all 3 levels of Government.
Debra Thurley*
