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BASKETBALL WA PARTNER WITH A STITCH IN TIME

Basketball WA are delighted to announce a new partnership with A Stitch in Time to help provide mental health and well-being support through its program to our basketball players, coaches, staff and its members.

This partnership evolved due to the BWA Board noticing the ever-increasing mental health burden in our basketball community and questioning if and how BWA may play an increasing role in supporting the basketball community in this area. The advent of COVID-19 and the anxiety and stress engendered around this issue had only exacerbated this.

Evan Stewart (BWA Deputy CEO) who has been one of the main driving forces behind this new partnership, commented.

“BWA has had working relationships with Lifeline, Headspace, Red Frogs and Youth Focus predominantly through the SBL space from a promotional sense. For instance, the SBL All-star game has previously partnered with Lifeline to raise funds and 2019 saw the introduction of a

Mental Health Awareness round to promote the importance of looking after your mental health and ending the stigma attached to the subject. The engaging round saw all players and coaches wear blue arm bands during games to raise awareness. All coaches and captains attended a mental health awareness workshop, giving them the tools necessary to support their own and their team’s mental health.

There are now programs available that engage with the community sport setting to raise awareness and increase knowledge and support of mental health issues.”

After discussions with some of these programs, BWA has agreed to partner with A Stich in Time to pilot a program, to engage with our Associations and together work out a future model of mental health and wellbeing support for the basketball community.

“We are genuinely pleased to partner with a member of our basketball family that is committed to understanding, promoting and developing mental health in the community.” said Evan.

Greg Hire, Founder and Facilitator of A Stitch in Time, has worked tirelessly in the community in raising awareness and placing high importance on mental health issues, was also pleased with formalising the partnership,

“This has been a discussion piece that through A Stitch in Time and the organisation of BWA, we have had over the last three to four months, has escalated and even due to what’s been happening in the world, given the magnitude of that and the seriousness of it.

For me, coming from a basketball background in Western Australia, I’m really wanting to give back and I understand the priority of it. So to be able to formalise a partnership, we will be able to deliver and engage in workshops around the importance of mental health, giving an insight in terms of educational resources that are evidence based to not only help manage well-being but help improve well-being, which is obviously quite significant.

I think it’s a really special thing for our organisation and is something I think is going to be hopefully long term and really special for the basketball community of Western Australia.”

Tayah Burrows WSBL player from Rockingham Flames and Perth Lynx, helped celebrate the partnership stating:
“Mental health is important to our game and any sport. We should be looking after our minds just as well as we look after our bodies.”

Lauren Carroll from Stirling Senators, also said,
“The mental health of our community is really important to us and anything we can do to add to both the education and support surrounding mental health issues is a win for us as a club.”

During the coming months A Stitch in Time is offering to deliver a workshop with BWA and each of the 15 Associations involved in the SBL and WABL competitions as well as access to an online resilience and well-being program for all members of our associations, where each association can take up the offer.

BWA and A Stitch in Time are committed to working together with associations during this time to understand the ongoing need and benefits of a mental health program within our basketball community and we will be using this time to develop a proposal for an ongoing program of support.

21 AUGUST 2020
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IN THE PHOTOS:
Greg Hire – A Stitch in Time
Brad Robbins – A Stitch in Time
Dr Marny Lishman – A Stitch in Time
Cody Ellis – Warwick Senators
Tayah Burrows – Rockingham Flames
Lauren Carroll – Stirling Senators
Evan Stewart – BWA
Photo Credit: Eric Paul Goldie