Samoa Sport Support Project (SSSP)
Allen + Clarke assisted SPARC and the Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC) to design and implement a three year international development project aimed at strengthening Samoa’s sports sector and building capacity and capability. Its core objectives were to:
- Strengthen the policy-making and operational capacity of Samoa’s sports officials;
- Enhance the technical capacity of Samoa’s sports administrators, coaches, referees and athletes; and
- Enhance the understanding, development and implementation of initiatives directed at Pacific Island New Zealanders.
Over the three years, a suite of capacity and capability building initiatives were implemented. Some of the key ones included:
- Ongoing policy support and policy secondments from Samoa to New Zealand
- Coaching workshops for high school netball coaches (held in Upolu and Savaii)
- Sports fitness and nutrition workshops for high school PE teachers/sports masters (Upolu and Savaii)
- Sports first aid workshops for high school teachers/coaches (Upolu and Savaii)
- The participation of Samoan coaches in the SPARC Connecting Coaches 2007 coaching convention in Wellington
- A mission to New Zealand for Samoan officials on secondary school sport and recreation and ongoing collaboration between New Zealand and Samoan officials
- A research training workshop for the MESC Sports Division
- Visits to New Zealand by Samoan primary and high school teachers to observe physical education classes and the provision of sport and recreation in New Zealand schools
- Athletics workshops for high school athletics coaches (Upolu and Savaii)
- Developing a Coach Development Framework for the Samoan Netball Association
- Secondment of Samoan officials to New Zealand for project management training
- An Active Movement workshop for early childhood education teachers, and
- The purchase of sports equipment, particularly athletics equipment, to enable MESC, teachers and coaches to apply the skills learnt through project activities.