Our Program needs funding for the following areas:

1.Participation in the National Wheelchair Basketball League and Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League

• We identified that 3 barriers to participation in sport for people with disability are location, cost and feeling respected, understood and supported.
• So, we have created two teams where the participants don’t have to pay to play, where they are able to travel from their own communities (rather than having relocate), and the charter of the Red Dust Heelers emphasises the importance of feeling safe, supported and included.
• A key part of this is cultural competency and safety, both within the Red Dust Heelers community as well as when they travel to participate in games - For example, we have introduced a Welcome or Acknowledgement of Country to begin any game we play in the National Leagues and we travel with the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Flags.
• We have been able to grow the number of Indigenous and other participants in the sport through creating these two teams, and want to continue to grow that participation.

2.Community Engagement

• Our Red Dust Heelers athletes are committed to spreading disability awareness, the importance of inclusion and celebrating the ability of people with disability.
• The program also runs community engagement events around Australia, where Heelers share their stories, run activities and work with local organisations to create ongoing opportunities for people with disability to participate in sport, recreation and potential Paralympic pathways.
• School visits are also included, where there is a strong focus on building empathy in students and delivering anti-bullying message and importance of celebrating each other's differences.
• The programs are very popular and we don’t like to say no to requests to visit communities, however, the demand is growing and we currently don’t have the resources to meet that demand.

3.Individual Support

• Along with our wheelchair basketball athletes, we have identified a number of young people with disabilities keen to advance in different sports.
• We want to provide the support they need to get to a level where they can be picked up by National bodies – this includes travel to recognised competitions, equipment, coaching and accommodation costs.
• We also provide mentoring, education and job pathway support and crisis support.
• Mental and physical health support, along with trauma support for individuals and their family/friends/support network.

4.Equipment

• We believe without grass roots level access to adaptive sports equipment, participation numbers will always be lower than they should be.
• This funding would allow us to either purchase or co-purchase equipment at a grass roots level so people with a disability can participate immediately when interested and maintain participation over time.
• We have also identified that another barrier to participation in para sports is the initial fear of the unknown, taking the first step alone and wanting to participate with friends and family - which is why we encourage family and friends to also participate - meaning access to extra sporting equipment is very important.

Through our fundraising partnership with the Sports Foundation, donations to the Red Dust Heelers program are tax deductible. So please show your support by donating today - Any donation, big or small, will go a long way!