Basketball Victoria’s (BV) Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) held a planning forum this week at State Parliament House, with an assembled group of inspiring young people from our community.
The aim of the forum was to engage on a number of current processes and to provide valuable information that will assist decision making for the continuous improvement of our sport.
The establishment of the YAC supports BV’s commitment to grow, develop and support our community in a way that is conducive and constructive. Youth representatives from across various facets of the Victorian basketball community join forces to develop new ways of increasing engagement with our next generation.
The first Youth Forum was held in 2018, with the plan to have it every second year, however due to the pandemic it was postponed. Therefore, it was with great excitement that a group of amazing young athletes were invited to join the YAC and take part this year.
At the start of the day, the whole team was taken on a tour by the Victorian Minister for Community Sport - The Honourable Ros Spence MP . Everyone was able to witness what happens behind the scenes at Parliament and hear about some of the building's history, offering inspiration for how having a voice can help create change for the future.
The forum's structure is a set of workshops where the representatives are divided into small groups to discuss a topic. Each table is facilitated by a key member from Basketball Victoria to help the committee to voice their opinions and articulate their message.
Basketball Victoria's General Manager High Performance, Grant Wallace, convened the meetimg and was excited by the level of engagement and input from each representative.
"It was really exciting to get a great bunch of young people in the one room and hear them speak about their experiences, their challenges and how they see basketball in the future!”
The forum is designed to offer a voice to the next generation of participants making their way through the pathway.
Representatives from across the state were in attendance:
- U20 State Wheelchair team-Laura Davoli
- U20 State Wheelchair team-Jack Thomas
- U20 Referee-Jordyn Slater
- U20 Referee-Jacob Taylor
- U20 WNBL Athlete/Southside Flyers-Dallas Loughbridge
- U14 Country-Lenny Maxwell
- U14 Metro-Serena Lee
- U15 Country-Ayisha Balogun
- U15 Metro-Parker Rivert
- U16 Metro-Sitaya Fagan
- U16 Country-Sonny Maxwell
- U18 Country-Asha Nightingale
- U18 Metro-Jack Whitbourn
After the findings of the first forum, the committee will reconvene in September to solidify topic points and actionable items.
