Inclusion
Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) is an organisation that provides a range of different opportunities for members to participate. Some of these opportunities include:
Patrolling the beach as a Bronze Medallion or Surf Rescue Certificate holder.
Providing beach patrols or other services as a holder of other awards such as First Aid, Resuscitation and Radio awards.
Members of support operations
Surf sports athletes
Surf sports coaches, officials, team managers, chaperones, etc
Junior Activities age managers
Club leaders and administratorsThese are only some of the activities that members of surf life saving clubs can participate in.
Surf life saving offers something for everyone, regardless of your gender, age, cultural background, physical ability (or disability), etc. This fact lies at the core of SLSA’s strategy to become a more inclusive organisation.
Inclusion is an attitude. It is about being an organisation where everyone feels welcome and valued. This starts from when a potential new member comes into contact with the club for the first time, through to the member actively participating in club activities.
In 2007, Surf Life Saving Australia developed an Inclusion Strategy. This strategy acknowledges that SLSA embraces diversity and difference by recognising and adapting to the needs of all Australians. This strategy acknowledges the important role that all members and potential members can play within the organisation. It also recognises that some strategies are also required to support the participation of members who have not traditionally been part of the organisation (eg. people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, people with disabilities, etc).
The Inclusion Strategy can be downloaded from this website.
As part of this strategy SLSA is in the process of conducting a current status audit to ascertain what opportunities are currently provided for people with disabilities and to idenfity programs that provide access to people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Backgrounds.
This survey is now available in two forms:
To access the on-line survey click here.
To download a PDF version of the survey click here.This survey invites clubs to share information about people currently involved in surf lifesaving who have a disability and who are from a CALD bakcround.
As such, SLSA is actively involved in two programs that support these needs:
On the Same Wave (supporting people from CALD backrounds)
Sport Connect (supporting people with disabilities)