DAYS after the completion of the biggest ever Santos Aboriginal Power Cup, the Port Adelaide Football Club is pleased to announce the program is expanding into the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands for the first time.
In its 15th year, the Santos Aboriginal Power Cup saw more than 550 students from 65 schools participate, learning about Aboriginal culture, healthy lifestyles and leadership during multiple classroom visits.
The program culminated with a nine-a-side football carnival at Karen Rolton Oval last week, with Central Yorke Academy winning the boys’ and Riverland Academy winning the girls’ finals played as curtain raisers to Port Adelaide’s game against Essendon at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
A new partnership with BankSA Foundation will allow the program to expand into four communities and see 30 students in the APY Lands.
Port Adelaide’s Aboriginal Programs Manager Braedon Talbot says expanding the program into the APY Lands was an important step for the club’s community arm Power Community Limited (PCL).
“PCL has previously run programs on the APY Lands but not for senior school students,” he explained.
“After a couple of tough years where communities on the Lands have been locked down due to the pandemic, there is a real need to find ways to re-engage young people with their schooling and the Santos Aboriginal Power Cup has had a lot of success in that space with over 5,000 students across the past 15 years.
“We are really excited to expand the program, and grateful for the support of BankSA Foundation in providing a $50,000 Community Grant that has enabled us to this.”
BankSA Foundation Manager, Olivia Thomas said the organisation was proud to support the program.
“BankSA Foundation is focussed on helping to create brighter futures for children and young people in need in our communities and we know the Santos Aboriginal Power Cup and it’s associated programs are driving real impact and helping to engage and re-engage young Aboriginal people with school,” she said.
“The pandemic has really challenged parts of the community, especially in the APY Lands, and we are thrilled to support a program that will help create a brighter future for young people on the Lands.”
The first of ten online workshops will commence in the coming weeks, and a community event in Alice Springs will follow at a date to be confirmed to reward participants for their attendance and completion of assessment tasks.
The Santos Aboriginal Power Cup started in 2008 as a school engagement tool for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and in recent years has been directly linked with helping achieve the Closing the Gap target of Year 12 attainment, with 96 per-cent of participants completing their year 12 studies in 2021.
That compares to just 63 per-cent of Indigenous students finishing their schooling across the nation.
