The City of Vincent will make sporting facilities more female friendly.
Camera IconThe City of Vincent will make sporting facilities more female friendly. Credit: Supplied/Getty Images

City of Vincent to apply for State Government funding to make sporting facilities female friendly

Julian WrightEastern Reporter

CITY of Vincent will apply for a share of $250,000 State Government funding offered to make sporting facilities more female friendly.

Women’s Interests Minister Simone McGurk and Sport and Recreation Minister Mick Murray announced this week the annual fund was available for grassroots sporting clubs to accommodate booming female participation levels.

It came three weeks after City of Vincent council supported providing workshops on implementing female friendly initiatives to local clubs, launching a marketing campaign that recognises local sportswomen and assessing the female-friendliness of sports facilities.

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City of Vincent Mayor Emma Cole said she welcomed the decision to quarantine funding to make sporting facilities accessible to women.

“This is something the City is already working towards and we have in the past applied for the Community Sporting and Recreation Facilities Fund (CSRFF) grants for this purpose, in partnership with local sporting clubs,” she said.

Ms Cole said facility upgrades at the Perth Soccer Club completed in April which included a purpose-built women’s change room was co-funded by the Club, a CSRFF grant and the City.

Ms McGurk said of WA’s 76 community-level AFL facilities with women’s teams, only 53 per cent have unisex or dedicated women’s options.

She said a lack of adequate facilities had forced women’s sporting teams to use public toilets, cars, bushes or sporting field sidelines instead of proper change rooms.

She said when women have had to use men’s change rooms, the urinals outnumbered toilets, there were no privacy screens and a lack of locking doors.

“Changing attitudes at grassroots sporting clubs is pivotal to changing outcomes, and mindsets, for budding female athletes,” she said.

For more information, go to www.dsr.wa.gov.au/funding/facilities-(csrff).