The Heartbeat of Football Foundation has announced a grant of $50,000 from the NSW Government to deliver its community sport focused heart health initiatives across regional NSW sporting grounds.
The “Heart Health Matters – Community Sport” project will leverage the undeniable power of sport to tackle cardiovascular disease and cardiac arrest across sporting communities in NSW.
Sport acts as a catalyst for community development, that brings communities together, builds character, drives social change (Integration & inclusion), inspires future generations, and promotes a healthy lifestyle.
- The “Heart Health Matters – Community Sport” project leverages the undeniable power of sport to tackle cardiovascular disease (CVD) & cardiac arrest across sporting communities in NSW;
- The role of sport and active recreation in society has become increasingly important over the years, not only for the individual but also for public health – it’s at the heart of every community!
- The project will deliver Heart Health Awareness & Screening Days across NSW with a focus on regional NSW and those local government areas (LGAs) identified as high-risk heart hotspots (80% regional and 20% metro): Hunter/Central Coast; Illawarra/South-East; New England/North West; Central West/Orana; and Riverina plus South-West/Western Sydney;
- The impact of CVD is greater for those living in regional and rural areas and underserved population groups including First Nations; Women and Multicultural communities.
- The education, awareness, training, and preventative screening provided as part of this project provides people the knowledge, reassurance and confidence to continue to enjoy the many benefits of participating regularly in sport, irrespective of age, ability, gender or background.
- This project supports other NSW Government initiatives, including the Local Sport Defibrillator program, championing the opportunity to make NSW the safest state to play sport.
NSW Sports Minister Steve Kamper said, “The benefits of sport are the cornerstone for communities across regional NSW and our support of this initiative is not only an investment in the health and wellbeing of residents but also in the prosperity and vitality of the region as a whole.”
“Personally, I was at the 2016 launch of the Heartbeat of Football Foundation and have cheered from the sidelines as have they continued to grow their reach and impact at community sporting grounds across NSW and major events such as FIFA Women’s World Cup Fan Festival site in Sydney/Gadigal.”
The Foundation has now delivered over 10,000 nurse-led preventative heart health screening tests across Australia, as well as provided over 1100 people with CPR & AED confidence sessions – growing the bystander network willing and able to respond to an emergency cardiac situation.
“I’m delighted the NSW Office of Sport is supporting our mission with our first ever Government grant in NSW,” HOF Founder Andrew Paschalidis said.
“We will be utilising 80% of the funding to deliver free heart health checks in regional NSW knowing the current access and inequity issues that exist. Community sport provides great opportunities to also get the important message out far and wide with regards to #KnowYourNumbers and #PreventionistheBestDefence and ensuring all of us try to get a regular check up.”
The “Heart Health Matters – Community Sport” project will be delivering heart health checks to as many people as possible for key modifiable risk factors – Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar and Cholesterol at their local sports ground.
In addition, it will be holding CPR and AED confidence sessions to build a stronger and more diverse network of bystander confidence as every minute counts when a person is in cardiac arrest – as the chance of survival decreases by 10 percent every minute.
This announcement is timely and coincides with the recent launch of the 2024 #MakeitRed which is a national campaign to raise awareness as well as funds for more heart health research, education and prevention programs. Clubs across all sports are invited to sign up and support this initiative by
visiting https://makeitred.org/.
