KiwiSport Regional Partnership Fund - Contestable Fund in Southland

Applications for the KiwiSport RPF are open until March 30, 2012.

Anyone may apply for a portion of this contestable fund, provided that applicants meet the criteria.

CLICK HERE for the application form

CLICK HERE for the criteria

KiwiSport News

Swim Safe Southland's Learn to Swim programme (partially funded by Sport Southland's KiwiSport fund) has been recognised with a national Water Safety New Zealand Award, after the success of a pilot project in 11 rural Southland schools.

CLICK HERE for more information on the award.

CLICK HERE to download a full report on the programme, conducted by the SIT Research Institute. An Evaluation of the Swim Safe Southland Central Southland Pilot Programme

Information on KiwiSport, as well as other programmes Sport Southland's KiwiSport fund is helping to run in schools throughout Southland features below. If you have any questions regarding KiwiSport, either
fill in the form at the bottom of this page or contact Sport Southland on 03 211 2150.

KiwiSport

KiwiSport is a government funding initiative to support sport for school-aged children (aged 5-18). KiwiSport was launched by the Prime Minister on 11 August 2009. Read the Prime Minister’s media release and background information on the Beehive website. CLICK HERE.

All KiwiSport funding initiatives must aim to:

• Increase the number of school-aged children participating in organised sport
• Increase the availability and accessibility of sport opportunities for all school-aged children.
• Support children in developing skills that will enable them to participate effectively in sport. That is…

More Kids


More Opportunities


Better Skills

In the Southland region, KiwiSport provides funding for schools for year 1-8 students and year 9-13 students via the Ministry of Education. This is called the "Direct Fund", and is calculated at $13 per student for years 1-8 and $20.86 per student for years 9-13. This is paid annually to schools on a quarterly basis. The fund is intended to support schools in establishing new opportunities for young people to get involved in sport.
There is also a fund, which Sport Southland is responsible for distributing, called the “Regional Partnership Fund” (RPF). This represents approximately $206,000 per year for the Southland region. Of the total, approximately $27,000 per annum is invested in the Sport Central area. The Wakatipu Basin falls within the Sport Southland boundaries and hence the investment of $27,000. This funding is managed by Sport Otago under their Contestable funding model.

The Regional Partnership Fund
The KiwiSport RPF fund is designed to complement the KiwiSport Direct Fund by encouraging schools, clubs, community organisations and local businesses to collaborate in increasing opportunities for organised sport for children. Allocating the RPF Fund is new ground for Sport Southland and hence the process was planned carefully and a great deal of community consultation was undertaken. The Sport Southland KiwiSport working group undertook that community consultation from October – December 2009.

The priorities for the Southland region identified via public consultation are:
• Cost – Need to provide more cost effective sport opportunities
• Transport – An issue for both town and rural families in terms of cost, time, availability and distance
• Lack of Skills – Children who don’t have sufficient skills may not enjoy sport and might lack confidence to participate, or drop out
• Sport Support – (Coordination, Organisation, Communication and Recruitment of Coaches) – There are now fewer teachers and parents/caregivers available to help out with sport, due to increased time pressure and lack of confidence to support sport.

Using the information gained via public consultation, a plan was drafted outlining how the RPF could best be invested in Southland and disseminated for public submission in March 2010. The final version of Sport Southland's RPF plan was then confirmed and SPARC approved this plan in April 2010.

CLICK HERE for a summary of Sport Southland's RPF Investment Plan

KiwiSport Projects in Southland

Sport Southland is now well under way in terms of implementing its Year 1 plan and building on the successes of those pilot projects.

4 Sport Development Officer in Schools ($20,000 of RPF in Year 1)

Matt Short, a local Gore resident, was employed in 2010 to deliver four sports to primary schools in Eastern Southland over a one year period, focusing on one sport each school term. Matt commenced his delivery role in Term 3, 2010 in the sport of Basketball. In Term 4 the athletics skills based programme, Run Jump Throw was delivered and Matt is now currently busy with his 15 member schools delivering Football. His first full calendar year will be completed next term in the sport of Table Tennis. The 4 Sport programme is targeted at Year 5-6 students. Each term involves 5-6 weeks of sport-specific skill sessions, 2-3 weeks of in-school competition and a Final’s Day involving all schools.

Secondary School Sports Coordinators ($8,000 of RPF in Year 1)
This project involved the secondary schools which received less funding via KiwiSport than they had previously received under the old Sportfit funding model. Fiona Ward, of Southland Secondary School Sport, worked with the relevant secondary schools to determine the appropriate amount of funding required for each school and subsequently the anticipated output resulting from the total KiwiSport investment (Direct Fund and RPF.

Basketball in low decile schools: ($10,000 of RPF in Year 1)
A trial was conducted in 2010 involving St Joseph’s, Fernworth, New River, Newfield Park, and St Patrick’s Schools i.e. Year 3 – 6 children from 5 South City primary schools. The Southland Basketball Association and Southland Sharks players visited each school once per week for up to 8 weeks. The programme involved 4 weeks of skills development, 3 weeks of intra-school competition and 1 ‘Finals Day’ inter-school competition. Given the success of the trial it will be repeated in Term 2 of 2011and involve 9 schools. The programme has been expanded to involve sport being delivered for four terms rather than one – see 4 Sport delivery in South City & Bluff (below)

Developing Skills in Primary Schools ($40,000 of RPF in Year 1)
In a joint initiative with Athletics Southland, Lorne Singer was employed in 2010. His contract includes delivering the fundamental skills based programme “Run, Jump, Throw” to targeted primary school children in Southern, Central, Western & Northern Southland. Lorne is now into his third school term of delivery and is achieving fantastic results.

Primary School Cluster Sports Development Officers ($30,000 of RPF in Year 1)
During 2010 primary schools were advised that $30,000 was available for clusters of schools to work together to develop projects to achieve the KiwiSport objectives and meet the identified priorities for children’s sport in Southland. Feed back from the schools was that they would prefer Sport Southland to provide options for the spend of this money. Consequently, they unanimously agreed that the money be invested be in existing and proposed projects.

Contestable KiwiSport Fund
$27,000 of Year 1 RPF (Round 1 – closed 30th June 2010)

 $36,000 of Year 3 RPF (Round 3 – closes 31 March 2011)

Forms and criteria can be downloaded from this website
4 Sport Delivery in South City & Bluff ($30,000 of RPF in Year 2)
Following the success of the 4 Sport Development Officer appointed to work with 15 Eastern Southland primary schools in 2010 and the Basketball trial in 5 South City schools in the same year further investment has been allocated to a similar model in South City & Bluff in 2011. A variation from the Eastern model is that the sports themselves are responsible for the delivery. In Term 1 the sports are rugby & netball, Term 2 it is Basketball and in Terms 3 & 4 it will likely be a mixture of Softball, Rugby League, Football & Touch. Once again the programme will focus on 5-6 weeks of sport-specific skill sessions, 2-3 weeks of in-school competition and a Final’s Day involving all schools.

SWIMSAFE Southland - Learn to Swim “pilot project” ($30,000 of RPF in Year 2)
Working in conjunction with Water Safety NZ this pilot project is being conducted in Central Southland and involving Year 1-8 students from 11 schools. The programme involves 2 professional swimming instructors working alongside teachers in delivering 10 x 30 minute learn to swim sessions. The ccordination of the programme is being shared with Southern REAP with Venture Southland providing knowledge around the pools being utilized. A funding application has been lodged which, if successful, would see the programme fully implemented across all of the province for a guaranteed three year period.

Bike Project ($20,000 of RPF in Year 2)
Sport Southland is currently working on a Learn to Bike project aimed at being delivered to targeted schools in Term 2, 2011. Likely partners in the project are Bike NZ, Cycling Southland, Southland BMX Club, Southland Mountain Biking Club, NZ Police and Bikes 4 Fun. The programme will be conducted over 7 weeks for Year 3-4 students. The schools being targeted are those who have not yet been involved in a KiwiSport project..

moveMprove Project ($10,000 of RPF in Year 2)
Also likely to start in Term 2 is the GymSports NZ foundation skills programme (moveMprove) targeted at Year 1-2 children. Up to 850 children will be involved, with the programme being delivered by the Invercargill Gymnastics Club. Schools to be involved will include those in North Invercargill ensuring that all schools in Southland will have had involvement in at least one KiwiSport funded project..

YEAR 2 AND BEYOND – SPORTSTART SOUTHLAND
In looking beyond Year 1 for the KiwiSport Fund it is important to have a vision for the future. Whilst, the fund in total is targeted at 5-18 year olds the amount of funding is not substantial enough to make a significant difference across that wide of an age spread. It is also not feasible to leverage funding immediately from within the Southland community. This will take time and only have buy in with “pilot projects” clearly showing they are making a significant difference. In addition, there are no guarantees in place to say the KiwiSport Fund will be in place after its initial 4 years. Therefore, it makes sense to not only be targeted but also develop a product which has a shelf life well beyond the 4 year time period associated with the KiwiSport Fund.
Consequently, there should be an early focus on 5-10 year olds with the following “Vision”:

“By 2016 all Southland school children, aged 5-10, will have completed, or be completing, a range of, in school, skill based or organised sports programmes* enabling them to be confident in sport and recreation for the duration of their lifetime. These programmes will be known collectively as SPORTSTART SOUTHLAND”

* The programmes as set out in the table are NOT set in concrete and may be replaced and/or amended over time.

SPORTSTART SOUTHLAND OUTCOMES
• Provide a consistent approach to sport delivery for young school children in all of Southland
• Significantly improve the overall skill level of young school children in all of Southland by the age of 10 thereby increasing the likelihood of them remaining in sport for their lifetime

SPORTSTART SOUTHLAND IMPACTS
• Allows sporting organisations (RSO’s & clubs) to be more focused on extra curricular sport activities
• Removes or significantly reduces the call from schools to have RSO’s & clubs visit on an ad hoc basis
• Allows for a more coordinated approach to be taken with investment into sport

To follow the progress of the KiwiSport Regional Partnership Fund (RPF) in Southland check this webpage regularly or contact Peter Dunne at Sport Southland on (03) 211 2150 or peter.dunne@sportsouthland.co.nz   

CLICK HERE to view the SPARC Kiwisport website

Kiwisport Enquiry Form
Have you read the Frequently Asked Questions above, but still have a question about the KiwiSport Regional Partnership Fund? Please contact us.

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