Netball Australia’s General Manager of Sports Development, Anne Marie Phippard and Coach Development and Participation Manager, Carol Byers, will travel to Samoa tomorrow as part of the Australian Sports Outreach program.

The program is an Australian Government initiative delivered by the Australian Sports Commission with the aim of using sport as a vehicle for community development.

Netball Australia will be working with members of the Samoa Netball Association and the Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture to increase sport participation of village communities.

Phippard and Byers will be training village-based facilitators to deliver regular, quality netball programs and competitions.

Phippard hopes that the trip is successful in giving villages the skills they need to further develop netball in the country.

“The initiative aims to assist Samoa Netball Association personnel to develop a village based netball program by ‘training the trainer’,” Phippard says

“We will assist village based facilitators to deliver netball competitions in the villages and hold a strategic planning workshop to assist the Samoa Netball Association to establish a development plan.

“This trip is very important as Netball Australia is a leader in netball and has a responsibility to provide assistance and leadership to developing member countries to grow the game and improve the playing standard internationally.”

Phippard and Byers will be in Samoa for seven days.