Crown Resorts and Souths Cares partner to create job opportunities through its Indigenous Employment Program

Helping indigenous teenagers transition into the workforce is the focus of a new initiative of Souths Cares and Crown Resorts.

South Sydney players (l-r) James Roberts, Cody Walker, Braidon Burns and Crown representative Barry Lenihan who is leading Crown's Indigenous Employment program, with the new Crown Sydney in the background. Picture: Brett Costello

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South Sydney’s Cody Walker and Braidon Burns have welcomed Crown Resorts’ newest indigenous employment initiative targeting teenagers looking to transition from school to work.

Crown have become the Rabbitohs sleeve sponsor, with part of the deal integrating the club’s South Cares program with Crown’s indigenous employment program.

The trainee program is designed to help participants build the skills to enter the workforce.

Rabbitohs five-eighth Walker said he and his teammates were keen to throw their support behind the program.

“Crown has had an indigenous program for over 10 years and it’s great to have a program like this that targets school leavers to help them go from school to work,” Walker said.

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South Sydney players James Roberts, Cody Walker and Braidon Burns are right behind the indigenous employment program.

“It can be a daunting stage in your life when you’re starting to become independent and programs like this only help that transition.”

Burns believes it’s the sort of program that provides teenagers with employment opportunities in some of Australia’s largest cities.

“There's another option there now and it means more jobs and opportunities for people around the area [Redfern] but also for people from the country, where there are less job opportunities,” Burns said.

Crown Resorts has committed to 50 permanent placements for indigenous trainees when Crown Sydney is launched in December. This is in addition to the 60 employment opportunities for indigenous men and women delivered during the construction phase of the project.

This latest initiative is in addition to Crown Resorts’ decade old Indigenous Employment Program. In that time Crown has provided over 900 indigenous employment opportunities across both Melbourne and Perth.

“That outreach into the indigenous community, through Souths Cares, is important because it has delivered genuine employment outcomes but we also want to support indigenous people into other areas of employment not just with Crown but other hospitality providers,” said Crown’s Indigenous Program Manager Barry Lenihan.