Create an initiative When you have identified barriers to participation, it is time to design an initiative to overcome them. We recommend starting small – you don’t have to tackle everything in one go! Starting small preserves resources and creates a better chance of success, which builds confidence to tackle additional initiatives.

Consult the community

We have suggested that you connect with community organisations to learn about the local community, and who is missing out on aquatics and recreation. Community consultation is very important when you are designing an initiative. Working with the community will help you to understand local priorities, and to design an initiative that the community wants. It is also likely to provide new ideas, and can help to build trust.

At the design stage, consider:

• holding a meeting with a range of stakeholders, either to seek ideas, or to test them;
• holding discussions with specific stakeholders to ask what initiatives they want to see, and what they have seen work in other places; and
• reviewing council action plans to see if they have already identified potential ideas.

Community partnerships are also important when you are implementing your project. We will discuss that further in the Collaborate section.

Learn from successful initiatives

It is also a great idea to look at initiatives successfully implemented by other venues. Check out the websites of leisure management operators and local facilities, or visit Belgravia Foundation to review stories about inclusion initiatives. Talk to other people in your organisation about their successes, and consider the examples we showcase throughout this guide.

Celebrate diversity Inclusion strategies should go beyond simply recognising diversity days once a year, but this can be a great way to spark conversations, display welcome, and to recognise the diversity of your staff and community. Consider building diversity days into your plans, and consider using them to launch initiatives. There are lots of days you can recognise.  Examples include: International Women’s Day; Cultural Diversity Week; IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexphobia and Transphobia); Reconciliation Week; NAIDOC Week; and International Day of People with Disability. Later on, these days might also be a great opportunity to celebrate what you have achieved.

Learn from inclusive practice guides

In addition to the resources highlighted on the ‘What barriers do people face?’ page, inclusive practice frameworks and toolkits can assist your design process. Some of these resources focus on sport, but they can also be useful in aquatics and recreation settings.

Consider adopting an existing tool or becoming part of an existing program

You don’t need to design something brand new. You can also consider adopting an existing inclusion tool, or becoming part of an existing program. Examples include:

• becoming part of a program that promotes access for carers (like Carers Card and Companion Card);
• joining an inclusion campaign like This Girl Can – Victoria (this campaign also provides supporters with resources and research about enabling participation by women and girls);
• implementing digital wayfaring tools (like Bindi Maps);
• implementing customer service technology (like Cerge);
• installing facilities that meet an accredited standard (like Changing Places); or
• working with an organisation that maintains a directory of welcoming and accessible services (like AAA Play and Disability Sports Australia’s National Referral Hub).

There are lots of possibilities – chat to your local community and consult advocacy groups about their favourite tools and programs.

Build a strategy for evaluating your initiative

When you have decided what you would like to design or adopt, you should think about how you are going to assess the impact of your initiative. It might seem too early to think about measuring progress, but it is important to include an evaluation plan as a part of the initiative, rather than an afterthought. This will help you to define what you want to achieve, to keep track of your progress and enable initiatives to be sustained.

One way to evaluate your initiative is to create evidence related to ‘outputs’ and ‘outcomes’.

An output is what is delivered, and is likely to be something that you can count. Leaving aside difficulties in collecting data, outputs are likely to be readily measurable. For example, an output could be the number of classes delivered or a physical change to a venue.

Outcomes can be harder to measure. They relate to the effect of the output. This could be a new thing a person can do due to the output. For example, a person might have a new skill after attending a class, or they might be more socially connected after joining a new walking group. Outcomes might be immediate, or they may need to be measured over time. The aquatics and recreation sector in Victoria has been urged to more often measure outcomes, and rely less on outputs, as outcomes better describe the benefits occurring for community groups from participation in aquatics and recreation activities (see VAGO Local Government Recreation Facilities).

The Evaluate section of this guide includes examples of outputs and outcomes, and ideas for what data to collect, and how to do it.

Influence and advocate