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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-09 Daily Xml
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ICE FACTOR PROGRAM

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:31): I rise today to share with parliament a very exciting program for youth at risk of disengaging from school and from education. It is called the Ice Factor program, which is a collaborative program between the South Australian Ice Sports Federation, the Adelaide Ice ArenA, school communities and local businesses. It was first established in 2005, and last week I had the opportunity to go along and present certificates to those people participating in this term's engagement.

There are currently 12 teams competing: Roma Mitchell Secondary School, Windsor Gardens High School, Temple Christian College, Bowden Brompton Community School, Willunga High School, Pasadena High School, Le Fevre High School, Para Hills High School, Valley View Secondary School, Freemont-Elizabeth City High School, Para West Adult Campus, and Aberfoyle Park. One of the key people involved in this project, and who does a lot of fundraising and organisation, is Marie Shaw QC, a former district court judge who retired in 2010. Marie is there as part of the federation and also the management group of the Ice ArenA.

I went along to hear about what these students are doing. The students are put forward by their teachers, who have identified them as being at risk and are not engaging in or coming along to school. This program teaches these students and develops and incorporates life skills through sports. Obviously, the Ice ArenA is quite a unique venue, because ice hockey is not generally something that many of us play.

In fact, the last time I was at the Ice ArenA was for a 14th birthday party in the 1980s which had a disco theme. Ice hockey has a much different way; these young people learn how to skate and how to play hockey, but at the same time, they are learning team management skills, keeping statistics, producing a newsletter, raising funds to support these activities and developing promotional material.

This program also teaches students a significant among of vocational skills, development of literacy and numeracy, as well as life skills such as teamwork, leadership and relational skills. One of the things I saw when I went along to their presentation was encouraging the participants in public speaking. Many of them would not have been putting up their hand to participate in many activities at school. Through their 10-week course, this is a way for them to develop those skills.

One of the things that makes this program quite unique is that, I guess, like in many Indigenous communities where there is a rule of no school, no pool, students must commit to attending school to be able to participate in the Ice Factor program. I would really like to thank those that sponsor the Ice Factor program: the Government of SA though the Be Active program; VIP Home Services and Power Play Sports who supply the players with equipment and skates, and I would like to note that VIP Home Services is the major sponsor of the program; Bunker freight lines; Clubs SA; COPE sensitive freight; Centro Hollywood and Homestead Homes.

There are several other people who have been involved in the development of this program including Don Anderson, who was the original liaison from Parafield Gardens High School, a high school in my electorate, and they were the first people to start this program in 2005 when it was a pilot program; John Botterill, the General Manager of IceArenA and Head Coach of the Adelaide Assassins; Chris Hall, IHA Women's Director and part of the management group of IceArenA; and Christine Manning who is a youth worker and was fundamentally involved in the establishment of the Ice Factor program. I also got to meet Sami Mantere, who is a head coach and, if I remember rightly, he was originally from Finland and is a little more experienced on the ice than maybe many of us in Australia.

I was really delighted to be able to go along to the program. I guess what I learned more than anything is that sometimes being innovative and thinking out of the square is the best way to engage people and children, particularly those who are not currently engaged in school, and we have to look at how we can be creative in encouraging them to stay on. We know very clearly from the statistics that unless someone finishes year 12, they are much more likely to experience unemployment in their life.

Time expired.

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