The Office of Sport’s Active Kids evaluation program has gained industry recognition, receiving the Research Project Award at the Parks and Leisure Australia NSW/ACT Awards of Excellence.
Chief Executive of the Office of Sport, Karen Jones said the ground-breaking research integrated within Active Kids provided enhanced understanding of the program’s impact on children’s participation, accredited providers and the sport sector.
Ms Jones said the evaluation program was carried out in partnership with the University of Sydney SPRINTER Group.
“The evaluation program for Active Kids is one of the largest and most comprehensive physical activity studies in the world,” Ms Jones said.
“Through our work with SPRINTER, we’re able to gain valuable insights that help develop initiatives to help build active communities across NSW,” she said.
Ms Jones said the Active Kids evaluation program had already seen five academic papers published to date.
Academic Director at SPRINTER, Lindsey Reece said the evaluation cohort of more than 200,000 children and adolescents had helped develop a robust evaluation framework, enabling new insights to improve outcomes for children.
“The evaluation is a unique opportunity to provide valuable insights for the sport and active recreation sector and already we have seen multiple publications as a result,” she said.
“The Active Kids evaluation is world-leading, and it is exciting to be actively shaping physical activity planning and policy in Australia and internationally,” Dr Reece said.
