Community Development Programme

Skateboarding has changed a lot over the past few years. More people are learning to skateboard through schools and with coaches. For many young people, a skateboarding school and coach will provide their first real experience of skateboarding.

SBNZ’s 2023 participation survey reinforced this shift:

• – 55% of respondents said they would use coaching if it was available. 
• – That increased to almost 80% for young people under 18. 
• – We also heard that girls, wāhine and neurodiverse participants can face barriers to participating. 

We want that first experience to be a good one and for people to build confidence, enjoy skateboarding and want to keep going.

We also know that expectations around areas such as health and safety, child safeguarding and delivering organised activities have changed. Coaches and skateboarding schools are often left to work through these things independently. We want to help skateboarding schools and coaches fill this gap with confidence.

During the project we’ll explore a range of ideas during the co-design process but we’ll work alongside coaches and skateboarding schools to understand what good practice already looks like, what support would be useful and whether there are any common challenges that could be addressed together.

The aim is to support the work already happening, rather than create new barriers. Any future approach would be shaped by what coaches and skateboarding schools tell us they need.

The project will explore what a coaching pathway could look like, but there are no predetermined outcomes.

If recommendations emerge through the co-design process, they will be shaped with the skateboarding community, not developed behind closed doors.

It means the community helps create the outcome.

Rather than SBNZ writing resources and asking people to use them, we’ll be working with coaches and skateboarding schools from across the country to understand:

• – What’s already working well 
• – Where the challenges are 
• – What support would actually be useful. 

Nothing has already been decided.

To help make this happen, we’ll initially be holding three in-person hui across Aotearoa, with a focus on the Upper North Island, Lower North Island and South Island. Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for you to attend, share your experiences and help us shape up the programme.

Our preference is to hold the hui in person. We know the best conversations often happen when people are in the same room, sharing ideas and learning from each other.

We’ll do our best to support you to attend wherever we can. To make it as easy as possible, we’ll also look to align hui with existing skateboarding events where practical, so people can get the most out of their time away and connect with the wider skateboarding community while they’re there.

Because you’re already doing the work.

Whether you’ve been coaching for twenty years or you’ve recently started running sessions at your local skatepark, your experience matters.

The programme will only be successful if it reflects the realities of skateboarding coaching in New Zealand.

Our first priority is to simply understand the coaching environment you work in, the challenges you face and what’s working well already. Then we might dive into what could be useful for you. Topics could include:

• – What your approach to coaching is
• – What types of training/upskilling have you undertaken
• – How do you currently manage health and safety with participants
• – Understanding your responsibilities when working with children, including ACC, safeguarding and liability requirements
• – How you approach the use of helmets and protective equipment 
• – Creating safe and welcoming skateboarding environments (in active public spaces!)
• – Where coaches and skateboarding schools feel additional support or resources would be valuable

These topics are examples only and will continue to evolve through conversations with the community.

This programme is not a general contestable fund for skateboarding events or programmes. Most of the funding is allocated to delivering the agreed areas of work, including community engagement, improving participation data and developing practical resources.

There is some funding available to test specific initiatives that emerge through the project, particularly those aimed at supporting girls and wāhine. What these initiatives look like has not yet been decided. This could potentially include supporting or partnering on an event or local initiative where it directly contributes to the programme’s objectives, but funding is not guaranteed.

We may ask you to share information that helps us better understand skateboarding across Aotearoa. For example, knowing approximately how many participants are involved in skateboarding programmes helps us build a clearer picture of national participation and better advocate for our community.

We’re not asking for commercially sensitive information, such as financial information, customer lists or anything that could affect how you operate your business.

Any information collected for the project will be treated confidentially and stored securely. Access will be limited to those directly involved in the project with no conflicts of interest. Where information is reported publicly, it will be combined and anonymised so individual coaches or skateboarding schools cannot be identified.

We recognise that several Board members are also coaches or operate skateboarding schools.

For that reason, engagement with coaches and skateboarding schools will be led by people who are not operating coaching businesses. Board members will participate alongside everyone else in the co-design process rather than leading discussions with potential competitors and will not have access to commercially sensitive data (which will be held offsite).

Over the coming months we’ll be:

• – Talking with skateboarding schools and coaches across New Zealand
• – Holding community hui 
• – Gathering examples of existing good practice
• – Sharing regular updates on what we’re hearing.

As resources begin to take shape, they’ll be shared with the community for feedback before they’re finalised.