Local business SALT helps suburban clubs reconnect
With no matches or training, isolation has become a key concern among suburban footballers. Here’s how one local health and wellbeing organisation is helping clubs reconnect during the COVID-19 shutdown.
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Local health and wellbeing organisation Sport and Life Training (SALT) is aiding community clubs to reconnect after the long lay-off.
SALT is a not-for-profit health promotion organisation, with its vision to “transform Australian culture through sport” by delivering educational, leadership and culture sessions to clubs, schools and businesses.
With players, coaches, officials and volunteers without their football club to lean on because of COVID-19’s suspension of play and training, SALT founder Dave Burt said his organisation sought to help those in need.
“As we go around and talk to them about how they’re coping, there’s a whole lot of them that are not coping, they’re not sleeping, they’re abusing alcohol, one guy was just gambling all night,” Burt said.
“We know those stories are out there, and they’re looking for a forum to share and get support.”
The ‘SALT Lunchbox’ webinar program, centred on mental health, ran three times a week from March until last week.
But the organisation has moved to help reintegrate people with one-another through the SALT Club Re-Connect Program as the future of sporting seasons remains uncertain.
“At the beginning of the coronavirus, we knew people were going to be stuck at home and not being able to get to their clubs,” Burt said.
“Right now, we feel like it’s time to pivot again because people aren’t getting back into their clubs or workplaces, so we’ve developed an online course called ‘club reconnect’ or ‘workplace teams reconnect’.”
SALT was founded in 2015 after Burt attended seven clubs over an 18-month period to aid their recovery and help rebuild their communities after they’d been impacted by suicide.
After recognising the strengths of clubs on the field, Burt saw a need for community clubs to display the same traits off the field and drive improved cultures via education programs.
Fast forward to 2020, and the eastern suburbs entity now works with “two thirds of EFL clubs”, while having just as strong a presence in the Northern league and AFL Outer East.
Burt said the reconnect program addresses the current and post-COVID-19 landscapes for clubs and asks the key questions within clubs to aid recovery.
“As a club, who do we need to be moving forward and what needs to be our emphasis? If we can’t actually play sport at the moment, which is going to be the case, what does the club consist of?” Burt asked.
“It consists of the people and relationships, and this is our opportunity to really go deep into developing our club ethos around wellbeing and mental health and supporting people as they come back in.
“As people come back into the club, we know some will be celebrating because we got through unscathed, still got our jobs et cetera, but some will be coming in really scarred by this – they’ve lost their jobs, they can’t celebrate coming back and as a club need to find out who these people are and how we can support them.
“We need to set up in the club a club wellbeing team, and we work with them to help them be the arms and legs, and eyes and ears around the club in connecting everybody to make sure they’ve got the care in place.”
Bendigo Bank and Eastland have got behind SALT, co-sponsoring the ‘Lunchbox’ webinar series among a host of financial contributions. Federal government funding has also meant clubs within the EFNL and AFL Outer East competitions received education sessions for free, and positive feedback on programs hasn’t been limited to local clubs.
“We’ve had some terrific emails and quite a number of testimonials,” Burt said.
“We had the Western Bulldogs actually ring and say we listened to a whole range of webinars at the moment around COVID, and found yours to be the very best, and can you help us to set up ours.
“That was complimentary that they’d chosen our model.”
For more information on Sport and Life Training (SALT), visit sportandlifetraining.com.au.
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