In time to mark UN International Women’s Day, Women in Sport Aotearoa, Ngā Wāhine Hākinakina o Aotearoa (WISPA), has launched a New Zealand first interactive digital platform designed to empower and advance gender equity and equality for women and girls in sport and active recreation in Aotearoa.
The WISPA Insight Hub will host a collection of insights, research, toolkits and case studies designed to spotlight great work and inspire individuals, community groups and organisations with ideas that can be applied practically, to enable them to also help drive change. It is set up around five themes, selected as amongst the most important issues: Voice & Visibility; Leadership; Participation; Indigeneity; and Youth.
Women in Sport Aotearoa Chief Executive, Rachel Froggatt, said:
“We’re very proud to launch the WISPA Insight Hub today with more than 20+ Insight Partners already on-board, including a range of key organisations including Sport New Zealand, New Zealand Cricket, Paralympics New Zealand, the University of Waikato and Women in Sport Otago.
“It is destined to fill a gap in the sector, giving those on the coal face immediate access to real life case studies and materials that will inspire and inform decision-making around the delivery of sport and recreation for women and girls. Over time we anticipate it will become an incredible resource.”
The WISPA Insight Hub is designed by Gravitate and has a small range of initial insights already loaded to showcase the potential. They were kindly contributed in time for the launch by some Insight Partners.
The WISPA Insight Hub is a sister site to the IWG Insight Hub, a global version of the platform launched by WISPA in September 2021 on behalf of the International Working Group (IWG) on Women & Sport.
The need for a domestic resource of this kind was identified due to a recognition that there were hundreds – if not thousands – of great stories of great work out there; stories of change that deserved to be shared to inspire more change. All content on the platform is free to access and is user generated. It is intended to inspire and support individuals and organisations in their work nationally and locally.
Key features on the WISPA Insight Hub will include:
- A bank of research, case studies, toolkits and news of the great work inspiring change for women and girls, contributed by members and Insight Partners from all over the Aotearoa and the Pacific. Every community member, and their organisation, is recognised and celebrated for their work.
- A world-class “instant search” function, allowing users to find content that best suits their individual needs. Users can search by activity, region and content type, along with the site’s five key themes.
- Functionality that allows users to save, print, download and share content they like amongst their own networks, and also connect and engage with contributors and the organisations they represent.
- An intuitive form where contributors can submit content for review and publication. User generated content will be the basis of the WISPA Insight Hub: it features real stories from real people.
- An events page to promote physical and digital events nationally, staged by community members. This will enable the community to engage with the best and most up-to-date speakers and thinking.
- A section featuring content from the WISPA Leadership itself, including – later in the year – recordings of speakers and content planned for the 8thIWG World Conference on Women & Sport.
- A translation plug in that will present all content in English, Māori and Samoan from the outset.
Visit the new WISPA Insight Hub here!
A massive thank you to the Insight Partners already on-board at launch:
Government Organisations
- Sport New Zealand
- High Performance Sport New Zealand
Women in Sport Organisations (WSOs)
- Women in Sport Waitaha
- Women in Sport Otago
- Shift Foundation
- This is Me / Sport Waikato
National Sports Organisations (NSOs)
- New Zealand Cricket
- Netball New Zealand
- Paralympics New Zealand
- New Zealand Football
- New Zealand Rugby
Regional Sports Trusts (RSTs) & Regional Sports Organisations
- Aktive Auckland
- Sport Northland
- Nuku Ora
- Sport Hawkes Bay
- Harbour Sport
Academic Institutions
- Unitec
- University of Waikato
- AUT Sports Performance Research Institute
- Lincoln University
Media
- LockerRoom
Consultancy
- Lumin
