Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) has announced an expansion of its regional community workforce to provide support in building the capacity and capability of Associations across all six BBNZ Zones. This expansion is the next stage of the Basketball Strengthen and Adapt Plan, launched in late 2021.
15 months into the implementation of this plan, this expansion aims to reposition the project to provide the right balance of regional support and national leadership by establishing a new regional workforce to support associations across the country.
“One of the common questions we’ve been asked is when the project will expand into other regions so it’s great to be able to make this move now and open up the potential for all associations to directly benefit from our support team,” says BBNZ CEO Dillon Boucher.
This new workforce will be focused on two key areas of need identified by the basketball community, namely growing the game for women and girls and supporting and developing our people – coaches, officials, volunteers, development staff and leaders.
“Growing the game for women and girls was the single biggest opportunity identified through strengthen and adapt community consultation. This is now one of four strategic priorities for BBNZ and we are committed to supporting Associations as they continue to grow opportunities for women and girls in participation and leadership,” says BBNZ GM Community Brad Edwards.
“Supporting and developing our people, with a focus on coaches and referees, remains the area of highest need for our Associations, as highlighted by the BBNZ Annual Association Survey. We are committed to helping our Associations continue to build capability and capacity within their staff and volunteer networks.”
“We’ve had some good progress in developing and testing a range of new programmes and services in these priority areas that we can now share and support in other regions. One of the key things we’ve learnt is how best to support our Associations and focus on the longer-term sustainability of improving the basketball system.”
“We want to focus on supporting our Associations to build their capacity and capability in these key areas. We’ve already started helping Associations unlock new funding to expand their capacity and we’ve also made a start in connecting and supporting our community development workforce around the country.”
Looking back on the project so far, Boucher notes “We need to ensure clear roles and responsibilities between us and associations. We need to leave delivery to our Associations and focus our mahi on getting in and supporting them to build the foundations for future growth and sustainability, both capacity – more people, and capability – better supported and resourced people.”
The expansion will see the initial three regional pilots in South Auckland, Capital and Canterbury regions expanded into a new regional support workforce with a North (Northern and Mid North Zones), Central (Central and Capital Zones) and South Island (Mainland and Southern) geographic approach.
Each of the three regions will have two regional support roles, a Women and Girls Lead and a People Development Lead. To establish this new regional support network, BBNZ are now recruiting for four new roles that can be viewed here.
