RAINBOW RACQUETS ADELAIDE (SQUASH SA)
SPORT AND RECREATION AWARD
NOMINATED FOR
Tonsley
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How would you describe yourself or your work in one sentence?
Making squash a game for all, where everyone feels welcome
Tell us a little about what you do
Rainbow Racquets Adelaide was born out of a Pride In Sport Grant and a push from Squash SA to make our current LGBTQA+ players proud of who they are inside our squash centres, hopefully creating an environment that attracted new groups of people to fell safe and enjoy the sport we love.
What impact or achievement are you most proud of this year?
From the grant, we have been able to showcase the qualities of our sport and our community to a range of new, fun, keen sporting people from the LGBTQA+ community. Luckily, some of these people have seen the benefits and enjoyment the sport brings and they have agreed to sign up to the cause and help run our program. There is now a monthly group of players coming together as Rainbow Racquets Adelaide at Kensington YMCA on a Saturday afternoon once a month. The group is growing and has gone from 0 to around 15 committed regulars, plus other people that attend sporadically.
With governance work starting in the background, we hope to form the group into a "Club" and possibly Incorporated Body in the next couple of years.
The next step is to have Rainbow Racquets teams entered into the Squash SA Adelaide Metro based pennant with the other 500 players across Adelaide.
We believe this will be a major positive move for squash in SA , and lead the way across Australia.
Squash Australia also supports Rainbow Racquets groups and clubs across Australia. They are planning the first national "Rainbow Racquets Open" in conjunction with the Australian Open next year in Brisbane. Squash SA will be financially supporting this inaugural event by sending players to represent SA.
Why does your work matter to the community?
We believe that creating a safe space where everyone feels comfortable to be themselves in our sport is massively important.
This project started because a staff member at Squash SA had made friends with a handful of people through squash over the years that were gay, but weren't out in the squash community. They felt sad and ashamed that their friends had to hide who they were and didn't feel comfortable being themselves whilst playing the sport they loved. This then led to a wider awareness program facilitated by Pride In Sport.
We want our current LGBTQA+ and new participants to know that our sport welcomes them and is a great place to make lifelong friends in a healthy environment.
What would you like voters to know when voting for you?
Voting for Rainbow Racquets will simply help us keep spreading the message that squash has a place for everyone, it's a fun sport, and the recognition of the hard work by our volunteers that run Rainbow Racquets will power them on to the next milestone in their journey.