A-League stars promote children’s activity in Melbourne

Football stars from Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City FC have helped launch of a new healthy lifestyle program, aimed at improving the activity levels among children aged between six and 12 years across Australia.

The new Football Federation Australia (FFA) Play Project football initiative is a three year program, designed to inspire school children across the country.

Launched in Melbourne by young football stars Milos Ridesic (Melbourne Victory), Stephanie Catley (Melbourne Victory) and Tom King (Melbourne City FC), the Play Project will promote active play to school children with priority given to high-risk areas identified in the national obesity study, inspiring children to live active, healthy lives through better knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.

The first part of the program will teach children about the relationship between active play and their muscles and bones while the second will focus on student’s understanding of the necessity of activity throughout history and the impacts of excessive recreational screen-time on their bodies. The final part of the program will demonstrate the importance of activity and active play in their daily lives and encouraging students to adopt it as a regular habit.

Introducing the Play Project football initiative, FFA Chief Executive David Gallop stated that football is well placed to get children active and promote healthy living principles.

Gallop explained “football is a skillful, simple and safe game that is perfect for improving students at all levels of ability to live an active, healthy life through better knowledge, attitude and behaviours.

“The Play Project workshops will be run by professional facilitators in primary school classrooms with an emphasis on dialogue, interaction and activity and is aligned with the Health and Physical Education of the Australian Curriculum.”

School teachers working with the Play Project football initiative will be supported by a robust set of post workshop teaching resources and we hope to reach thousands of students over the next three years.

The first year of the Play Project will focus on schools within the NSW and Victorian areas and will be linked to a complementary schools food education project, to be announced in the coming months.

Together the two projects will comprise Australia’s largest healthy lifestyle program for children.

The program is supported by the Mondelez International Foundation (MIF), which provides funding for community-based programs across the globe. Over the course of the three year program, the Play Project will complete over 3,000 workshops, reaching over 100,000 school children from across the country.

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