The Advocate continues to follow The Huddle

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Huddle Future Bright

by Elanor Watt - The Advocate

The North Melbourne Football Club’s eight-week demonstration project, The Huddle, has drawn to a close.

The project consisted of two programs, Active Girls and Active Learning, which were aimed to educate youth around healthy living, provide leadership opportunities and to assist in increasing physical activity.

Diversity and inclusion manager Bridget Barker said the program in Devonport had been a success.

“We had been keen to establish some programming in Tasmania for a little while and I was really stoked when the Devonport City Council put their hand up,” she said.

“It has gone really well, numbers have increased and young people have given really good feedback and the community too.

“I think the ability to combine the sport with physical activity and various learning activities around leadership, digital skills and all sorts of things not just the sporting stuff has made it a success.”

Ms Barker said the intention of this program was for it to expand after the eight-week demonstration ceased.

“It was called a demonstration project for a reason, to show what we can do and we certainly want to go on to do more regular programming and more opportunities for young people in Devonport and surrounding municipalities,” she said.

North Melbourne footballer Paul Ahern traveled to Devonport to attend the final session of The Huddle.

He assisted in coaching and leadership activities on the day.

He said as a footballer he felt lucky to be able to be involved in these community programs.

“This is my first year at North and I’ve been really amazed to see all the work The Huddle does in the community,” Ahern said.

“It’s really exciting that The Huddle’s work can reach out to even more people, including in Tasmania.”

Devonport Mayor Steve Martin said he wanted to continue to work with the Kangaroos.

“It’s been wonderful to watch how this project has engaged our young people, by getting them active and linking them up with many different groups and organisations in our city,” he said.

See original article here