Counties Manukau Sports Foundation aims to get people involved and active on the sports field.

 


The talent search aims to find more athletes like Val Vili.

Part of its strategy is to boost the number and quality of coaches and a grant from the Trust this year is funding an intensive development programme which aims to increase the number of coaches by 10% next year, as well as improving coach retention rates by 10%.

The foundation’s development programme will result in a network of sport-specifi c coaches working at the grass roots to improve all sports by assisting in the recruitment, training and deployment of coaches in schools and clubs.

Foundation Chief Executive Russell Preston says the Trust’s $300,000 grant will be passed on to sporting codes as far south as Tuakau, helping not only on the sport fi eld but with governance training and developing business plans.

Another organisation with a South Auckland focus, the Peter Snell Institute of Sport, has been granted $83,000 to help with its talent search programme. This runs in 16 South Auckland schools, spotting and guiding young athletes with outstanding potential.

Its vision for South Auckland is to fi nd more of the likes of shot put champion Val Vili, who came on board with the institute at the age of 15 and is now ranked second in the world.

The institute is sure there’s a wealth of undiscovered potential in South Auckland, but it has found that schools and families in South Auckland don’t have the funds to give young athletes the support they need.
At a regional level, the Trust has helped fund the ARPASS strategy – the collaborative regional effort which aims to get Aucklanders more active. The eight Auckland local authorities, four regional sports trusts, Ministry of Health and SPARC are all involved.
The Trust’s $225,000 grant will allow ARPASS to develop projects including a texting system to support SPARC’s Push Play campaign and initiatives to identify and work with communities that have concentrations of people with low physical activity levels.