Funded by the Crime Prevention Innovation Fund, the Women’s SupPORT Pathways Project provides specialist support for criminalised women – a cohort commonly experiencing multiple and complex life challenges – to participate in mainstream community sports, with a focus on the emerging Australian Rules women’s football league in Victoria.

The program supports women to participate in club activities in a range of ways, including as players or assisting with training, team management, player support or social activities. Clubs participating in the project are also assisted to provide a safe and inclusive environment for the women. It operates on the simple premise that facilitating access to the world of community sport provides women in contact with the justice system with opportunities to experience acceptance, connection, stability, confidence and skills development – and crucially, to connect with the services needed to address their multiple support needs. A secondary aim of the project is to contribute to greater understanding in the community about the individual and systemic drivers of offending.

This report brings together findings from four key areas of inquiry, those being implementation, effectiveness, appropriateness and impact of the project and associated Pathways Program.

Evaluation findings also indicate positive outcomes for clubs, as well as some challenges both for clubs and participating women. This report highlights areas where programming could be strengthened to address these challenges and to ensure that participants experience clubs as safe and supportive environments.