WATER POLO AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES INCLUSION, DIVERSITY AND EQUITY STRATEGY

Water Polo Australia (WPA) is pleased to unveil our Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) Strategy that will form part of WPA’s social impact framework.

WPA’s mission is to make our sport, your sport and in order to deliver on that, WPA must ensure the sport provides an inclusive environment and formats that cater to people from all backgrounds and communities.

Members of the WPA Inclusion Diversity and Equity Steering Panel were made up of people from within the water polo community to provide insights from learned experiences, combined with representatives from partner organisations to offer industry insights.

The Steering Panel identified common barriers that, up until now, have limited inclusivity, stifled diversity or reduced equity across the sport.

Strategies have been identified to address these through a detailed action plan for Water Polo in Australia with the hope that by addressing the most common barriers and challenges, everyone will feel welcome and see a place for themselves in the sport of water polo.

Member of the IDE Steering Panel, Domenic Tripodi (ACT) has over 20 years experience working in the healthcare sector and is a parent of junior water polo players.

His experience in supporting his children, one of whom is a junior para-athlete, allowed Domenic to share his knowledge of disability in a bid to ensure all abilities are encouraged to get involved in water polo.

“We are really happy to have such a dedicated group with different levels of experience develop Water Polo Australia’s first Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) Strategy.

“I wanted to be part of developing this strategy so I could share my lived experience as a parent of a child with a disability. My son first got involved and sitting poolside, it was the coaches who encouraged us to get my daughter, who is an amputee, in the pool to have a go.

“From what we have learned going through those experiences, I hoped I could help other areas of water polo get more people with a disability involved in the sport. We want to show clubs at the grassroots level that there is a commitment from the highest levels of the organisation around inclusion and diversity.

“If we can broaden people’s focus so that anyone can have a crack at water polo, that would be a great result,” he said.

Fellow Steering Panel member, Emily McGowan (VIC), is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community and was motivated to be part of this landmark strategy for the sport to ensure all communities are meaningfully represented at all levels of water polo.

“As a trans athlete, it’s been hard to see a place for myself in the sport when there are so few sporting role models who look like me,” they said.

“I wanted to be part of the IDE committee to help WPA understand ways to make LGBTQIA+ people feel welcome in our sport, so that I can one day see my community meaningfully represented in our water polo community.”

McGowan said the strategy is designed to help all levels of the sport understand how they can make sure that everyone has a place to enjoy water polo.

“Having an IDE strategy will provide a foundation for the inclusion, diversity, and equity work that will allow us to welcome more people in to share our love of water polo. This will help our sport grow and be sustainable into the future.

“The Steering Panel hopes this framework will be a step towards creating a safe and welcoming environment for anyone who wants to participate in water polo, so that our water polo community expands to reflect the rich diversity of the general population,” they said.

Click here to download the WPA Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Strategy.