Youth Development Trust gets Medibank grant for play

Youth Development Trust gets Medibank grant for play

1 May 2013

A community trust which encourages young people to be active, healthy and connect with their local environment through play will soon be able to add more fun to their programmes with a $10,000 grant from the Medibank Community Fund. The Get in2life Youth Development Trust in Auckland takes play equipment including inflatable sumo suits and jousting, giant balls, bats and wheels to local parks and reserves for their IN2IT unstructured play programme.

This innovative play programme is one of six New Zealand initiatives to receive grants, totalling $65,580. Auckland Water Safety also received $10,000 for its six-month social group programme that helps new migrants learn skills for a healthy lifestyle, including water safety and good nutrition. Other recipients were the Garden to Table Trust $15,000, Waikato International Community Garden Project $12,500, Nourish cooking courses at New Brighton Community Gardens, $8,080 and Te Ara Hauara at Grey Main School $10,000.

Medibank General Manager New Zealand, Andrea Pettett, says the grants are aimed at helping people in the community connect with and support one another, and live healthy lives.

“As a company that works in the health field, Medibank sees every day the stress families and individuals are placed under when someone becomes isolated or unwell. We hope the grants will help people to stay connected, live healthier lives and enjoy being active.”

The IN2IT street games experience was developed over three years ago, based around the New York model encouraging young people to maximise the use of their street environments to play and be active. The unstructured creative play environment encourages young people to be innovative in their recreation so when they are older, they have the skills and confidence to be the best they can be. Over 150,000 children and young people have participated in the free public IN2IT programmes in Auckland over the last two years including 1000 on ANZAC Day this year.

“The huge popularity of the IN2IT programme is a great example of helping children to develop the love or habit of being active in their own way which is why Medibank wants to support it,” Andrea Pettett says.

Scott Mackenzie, General Manager of Get in2Life Youth Development Trust says the grant will help support the huge growth of their IN2IT street games “We were stoked to hear we had got this grant. It’s a pretty tight funding environment so for Medibank to acknowledge the benefits of the programme we run is an amazing accolade”.

Applications for the 2013/2014 grants open in August 2013, and community groups are urged to apply. Applications can be downloaded from the Medibank Community Fund website: www.medibankcf.co.nz.

Medibank is a leading Australasian health company, which provides more than 500,000 face-to-face consultations and answers more than 1.8 million health advice, coaching and chronic disease management calls annually. In New Zealand, Medibank Health Solutions operates Healthline and other telephone health services, including a Mental Health Line for a number of District Health Boards.

Established in 2011, the Medibank Community Fund has the specific goal of helping Medibank to extend its community reach via support of grassroots healthy living and community connectedness projects. Each year, Medibank commits one per cent of its pre-tax profit to the Fund to support four program areas: partnerships, community grants, scholarship grants and donations.

ENDS

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