The Dragons Community Foundation was proudly established in partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation, with the goal of creating a lasting, positive impact on our community.

The foundation offers our dedicated members, fans, and supporters the opportunity to directly contribute to the success and growth of the St George Illawarra Dragons, ensuring that we continue to strive for excellence both on and off the field.

We invite you to join us in making a meaningful difference. Your donation helps us work towards our vision of becoming the benchmark sporting club in Australia, excelling in community engagement and elite development.

Community and High Performance Centre

The St George Illawarra Dragons' Community and High Performance Centre (CHPC) will be an industry-leading, high-performance training and administration facility that will help create a significant legacy for the community.

The CHPC will allow the Dragons' five-plus existing facilities to come together under one roof at the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Innovation Campus and allow for a crosspollination of the club's elite and junior representative pathway programs.

The Dragons' ambition is to create a world class precinct and facility that:

• Delivers high performance, administration and community facilities for elite, pathways and community programs;
• Enhances the partnership with UOW across education, research and innovation;
• Harnesses the power of sport to expand health and wellbeing programs and other initiatives, and;
• Deepens community engagement and connection through partnerships, programs, collaboration and learning.

Dragons Community Programs

The Foundation supports several community programs, including The Best You Can Be, Score Dragons, Dusty and Friends, and Community HUB. These initiatives are focused on:

• Encouraging positive choices around health, wellbeing, education, and social issues, particularly for youth.
• Promoting rugby league as a tool to improve health and foster social connections.
• Using the Dragons' brand and influence to drive positive change.
• Partnering with local charities and associations to help those in need.

Elite Development

The Elite Junior Pathways Project provides a pathway to promote the development of both male and female junior teams to participate in Rugby League state programs. The program will engage junior players from the age of 13 to 18 to assist with the development of welfare and skills education, and opportunities to compete in Rugby League initiatives. This program also allows the Club to have highly skilled Coaches and Medical staff work with these junior players at all stages during their development.

The High Performance program has been established and designed to assist with promoting junior player welfare and wellbeing, through the development and tracking of injury and performance, specialist analytics review and monitoring of performance and recovery outcomes. This performance management process is supported by various technology platforms including GPS tracking equipment and computer analytics programs.

Located within the communities of Kogarah and Wollongong the Dragons develop and monitor more than 150 male and female athletes at all times, across all levels of the sport. The use of performance equipment plays an integral role in supporting the performance and welfare of players, and requires constant improvement and updating with advances in sport science and technology. This program is essential in assisting performance staff to ensure that the players retain peak performance levels within all competitions.

Every donation to the Dragons Community Foundation helps us empower individuals and create lasting change. Together, we can continue to build a strong, healthy, and connected community.