Athlete Advocacy in Action

As the first of three priorities for the Athlete Leaders Network, Advocacy has been the topic du jour with our Network Leaders having the opportunity to engage directly with High Performance Sport New Zealand on the proposed changes for the 2025 - 2028 Investment strategy and now the Mental Health Strategy for 2024 - 2028.

Through two well attended Focus Groups our Network Leaders were able to provide feedback and question Steve Tew, Director of High Performance and the HPSNZ team on the proposed changes to the investment criteria, High Performance Planning Guidelines for NSO’s (National Sporting Organisations), Performance Pathways Frameworks and TAPS (Tailored Athlete Pathways Support). For many of our Network Leaders it was an opportunity to get a glimpse at the internal workings of how the investment in athletes and sports happens. With the feedback from all stakeholders underway the HPSNZ team will collate the information and present to their board to ensure they meet their timeline of making the information publicly available in May, we look forward to seeing the outcome.

Our attention now turns to the next opportunity for our Network Leaders to advocate for their peers on the Mental Health strategy refresh. The Network Leaders were first introduced to the proposed changes at our forum in October last year through a presentation from Emily Downes, GM of Wellbeing and Leadership, Dr John Sullivan, Head of Psychology and Fiona Mather, GM Athlete Performance Support at High Performance Sport New Zealand.

Emily Downes, GM of Wellbeing and Leadership at HPSNZ presenting at the ALN Forum October 2023.

The initial document has been sent out to the network for them to share with their peers within their sporting codes enabling them to gather and provide feedback to us here at the ALN to compile and present back to the team through Emily.

Advocacy in Action!