Eight Cape Town communities will come alive on 21 April 2023 with the exciting launch of Sporting Chance Street Netball – a regional street netball programme sponsored by the City of Cape Town and Sunbet Cares, that will reach 768 girls under the age of 13, guiding them towards future opportunities through the valuable lessons of sport.
Street Netball’s inaugural centre pass will take place simultaneously on Friday the 21st at 2pm across the Cape communities of Grassy Park, Elsies River, Mitchell’s Plain, Khayelitsha, Langa, Mfuleni, Ocean View and Nomzamo, and forms part of the City of Cape Town’s Countdown to The Netball World Cup.
Regional finals are then planned for Youth Day, 16 June, and the festival finale will take place in the Fan Park next to the CTICC to coincide with the 2023 Vitality Netball World Cup (VNWC).
Endorsed by the Cape Town Netball Federation and Netball South Africa, and conceived and co-ordinated by Sporting Chance, a youth sports development organisation based in Cape Town, the Street Netball programme teaches life skills through the game of netball to children who need it most, where it is needed most – in communities that are plagued by poverty and crime, and lacking in adequate facilities or structured after-school activities.
“The street is the ideal venue for kids to come together and do something positive and healthy,” says Brad Bing, managing director of Sporting Chance. “We need to take back the streets from social evils in our communities – programmes like Street Netball turn the streets into a stage where life lessons can be taught, friendships forged and communities entertained.
Empowering Cape Town’s Girls With Life Skills
Bing goes on to explain that a very important aspect of the Street Netball initiative is a Life Skills programme that will run concurrently for eight weeks. “Emthonjeni Counselling and Training, one of our supporting partners, will be working with the girls across the eight Cape communities to equip them with essential life skills and empowerment knowledge to help them plan for their futures. Being healthy and keeping active are added critical life skills taught by the programme and so necessary to keep building a healthy South Africa.”
In addition to this, SA netball icon Phumza Maweni has come on board as an ambassador for Street Netball. The Phumza Maweni Foundation, as supporting partners, will also be assisting to identify netball players that display exceptional talent and flair and will mentor and monitor their netball progress going forward.
“And it isn’t only the children who will benefit from this programme – 16 local coaches and a coordinator will be selected from each of the eight communities and these 136 adults will be empowered to make each Street Netball community programme their own,” continues Bing.