The Port Adelaide Football Club is pleased to announce that Santos has agreed to extend its support for the Aboriginal Power Cup for another three years.

With a competitive football carnival as its centrepiece, the Aboriginal Power Cup focuses on engaging young people in Aboriginal culture, education, healthy lifestyle choices, teamwork, leadership and life skills.

Over its eleven-year history, the program has been directly linked to helping achieve the Closing The Gap target of Year 12 Attainment, with 96% of participants in 2017 completing their Year 12 studies.

Port Adelaide Chief Executive Officer Keith Thomas thanked Santos for its ongoing support.

“The Aboriginal Power Cup is our community team’s flagship education program which has been achieving some amazing results – results that could not be possible without the backing of Santos,” he said.

“This is the longest-running joint football and education community program for Aboriginal students in the Australian professional sports industry and Santos has been there just about every step of the way.”

Mr Thomas’ sentiments were echoed by Port Adelaide’s Director of Aboriginal Programs Paul Vandenbergh.

“We believe the Aboriginal Power Cup is industry-leading and the track record shows that,” he said.

“We are seeing more young Aboriginal people engaged in schooling, more young Aboriginal people finishing schooling and more young Aboriginal people now going on to further education and employment.

“But our work would not be possible without the support of Santos, which shares our values of being a pioneer in its field and building a better future, including for Indigenous Australians.”

Santos Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher said the company has a proud 10-year history of supporting the Aboriginal Power Cup and is delighted to commit a further $750,000 to the program through to 2021.

“The Aboriginal Power Cup is not just about football,” Mr Gallagher said.

“It is a program that is driving real social improvement for young Aboriginal people by lifting school attendance and graduation rates and providing a great platform for success in their future education, employment and life endeavours.”

“Our commitment to the Aboriginal Power Cup is consistent with Santos’ values to build a better future, and what better way to do that than to support a ladder of opportunity for our first Australians.”