The Victorian Youth Polo Academy (VYPA) is a grassroots not-for-profit organisation created to develop canoe polo programs in schools, communities and aquatic facilities throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria. Although ‘youth’ is in our name, our members range from young kids to university-aged players and working professionals. We support our members to develop confidence and teamwork skills through canoe polo. We host training sessions, casual games and tournaments, and provide coaching and gear for people to participate.

Our vision as a club is to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate in kayaking and canoe polo, regardless of their location, income, or background. We are particularly interested in working with at-risk youth and with those who may otherwise not have the opportunity to participate in organised sports.

The Victorian Youth Polo Academy (currently) does not have a home base or clubhouse. While some may see this as a disadvantage, we see it as a strength. It allows us to keep our equipment and programs mobile and offer them in locations around Melbourne and Regional Victoria wherever they are needed. To this date, our programs have been run in multiple locations in Melbourne and in regional areas including Ballarat and the Murray River. We have established a permanent field consisting of floating goals and field markers at Edgewater Lake on the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne's inner west. This field is used multiple times per week for training sessions and introductory programs and is set to grow in its use over the coming year. Currently, the field is set up using equipment loaned to us by Paddle Victoria, our state sporting body, and we are eager to replace their aging equipment with our own equipment as we continue to grow the sport in Melbourne's west.

Canoe polo, like all forms of kayaking, is usually an expensive sport to get involved with. While other sports like football and basketball only require a set of shoes and a ball, kayaking involves equipment such as kayaks, paddles, and lifejackets, in order to participate. It has often been required that participants pay for these items, which greatly restricts entry to only those who can afford it. One of the values on which the club was founded is

accessibility: ensuring that anyone can have the opportunity to participate in the sport and barriers to accessing equipment are removed by providing club-owned equipment. This model has been incredibly successful in the development of the sport in Europe, with most athletes using club-owned equipment all the way up to World Championship events, and we have had similar success implementing this model at a local level throughout the state.