Refugee background migrants to Australia face significant challenges. We work in partnership with community organisations to investigate and promote conditions that support children and families from refugee backgrounds to overcome barriers to social inclusion, participation and wellbeing.
Count Me In
Count Me In (CMI) was a mixed-methods, participatory action research project designed and implemented in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia between 2017–2019 to
address known barriers to sports participation for young people from migrant and minority
ethnic groups.
Count Me In was a partnership project between the University of Melbourne, Merri Health, Arabic Welfare, Moreland City Council, Hume City Council, VicHealth, Centre for Multicultural Youth, Fawkner Primary School, Badminton Victoria and many local sporting clubs. The project aimed to promote physical, mental and social health by providing supported opportunities to participate in sport by culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Bi-cultural Community Support Co-ordinators (CSCs) were employed to recruit and support the engagement of young people and their families into local mainstream sports clubs.
Study Results
Count Me In study published in Sport & Society (2022)
VicHealth Summary Research Report
Count Me In! from Brockhoff Child Health Program on Vimeo.
Video – by Iman Balla
‘Sport Leadership and Society’ undergraduate student project, University of Melbourne
https://vimeo.com/246892521
Newsletters
Resources
- Count Me In Flyer
- Benefits of Sport
- Tip Sheet - For Parents
- Tip Sheet - For Clubs
- VicHealth Tips for clubs and community programs seeking to increase migrant and refugee community participation in sport
Scoping Study 2014-2015: Promoting sports participation for refugee-background young people
Published paper
Block K and Gibbs L. 2017. Promoting Social Inclusion through Sport for Refugee-Background Youth in Australia: Analysing Different Participation Models. Social Inclusion, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages 91–100. DOI: 10.17645/si.v5i2.903
Project Team
- Professor Lisa Gibbs, Jack Brockhoff Child Health & Wellbeing Program
- Dr Karen Block, Jack Brockhoff Child Health & Wellbeing Program
- Ms Dana Young, Jack Brockhoff Child Health & Wellbeing Program
- Contact Name
- Dr Karen Block
- keblock@unimelb.edu.au