Established in 1999, the program was the first of its kind in the AFL and is the envy of many professional sporting clubs. PCYP promotes healthy lifestyles to more than 100 metropolitan and regional schools (30,000 students) every year.
Messages are delivered by Power players, elite female athletes from various sports including netball and basketball, and wheelchair basketball athletes.
The aim of the program is to encourage young people to live a healthy lifestyle and make positive choices about their lifestyle habits.
PCYP delivers the following messages:
- Gofor2and5 - two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables every day.
- Be Active - a minimum of 60 minutes physical activity every day.
- Smarter than Smoking - the negative effects of smoking.
Each year our metropolitan visits focus on a specific geographic region in and around Adelaide - North, South, East, and West. This year we focussed on schools in the North. 34 metro schools took part in a three-visit program which is delivered in the classroom of Yr 6/7 students for the first two weeks, followed by two school assemblies (R-Yr 3 and Yr 4 -Yr 7) in the third week.
To compliment the metro program, PCYP visited 64 schools in regional areas all across South Australia. This started off in February as part of the club’s AFL Community Camp in Port Lincoln. Schools in and around Port Lincoln received visits from Power players where Healthy Lifestyle assemblies were delivered to 3,920 students at 18 schools. In addition to our Community camp we ran our annual Regional Day and a Northern Day. 51 schools across the state, including locations such as Gawler, Ceduna, Clare, the Barossa and Victor Harbor received visits.
Port Adelaide Football Club looks forward to PCYP strengthening its already fine reputation in 2011. Our Community Camp location will be Clare, whilst our metropolitan focus will switch to the East and North-eastern suburbs. If you would like to nominate a school to receive a PCYP visit in 2011 or beyond, expressions of interest can be emailed to atuckfield@pafc.com.au
