Lakemba Sports Club- NextGen Volunteers

Exploring new ways of promoting volunteering opportunities to reach a broad and diverse range of community members.

In 2015 Lakemba Sports club had only one junior team and a few volunteers. Sadly this is a familiar story for many small community clubs across Australia as larger commercial clubs grow. At that time there was a real risk that the club would fold.  Since then, Lakemba Sports Club has undertaken a tremendous U-turn with a focus on building trust between the multicultural communities in the local area.

One such initiative, NextGen has a unique approach to finding new volunteers. Its first step was to promote its own players, many of whom were representative of the diverse communities in the area, to become the next generation of club volunteers. NextGen targets the youth in the area, assisting them to develop a base of necessary skills, building confident young men and women through coaching, and leading in the community. Senior club coaches and managers identify youth they believe have the potential, on and off the pitch, to take on more roles and responsibilities both in the club and the community. 

As a result of NextGen, 62% of coaches delivering the club’s Aldi Mini Roos program are aged between 11 and 15 years old. The NextGen program is having a positive impact for the youth in the community and for the club supporting coaching, refereeing and administrative roles.

11-year-old, Ghazi is a junior player and LFC’s youngest volunteer coach supported through Next Gen. Ghazi is the youngest coach at Lakemba Sports Club, taking on the role of under 5s ALDI MiniRoos Game Leader. Since taking the coaching role, he has grown in confidence, giving him the ability to strive for excellence in other areas of life, most recently running for School Captain at his local primary school. Football NSW congratulated Ghazi for his efforts in showcasing the power of football to his school audience.

Ghazi Mahajna is a perfect example of the Next Gen program and ALDI MiniRoos positively impacting the life of a young person.