In partnership with Hayley Ruahi-Paul from Hokianga Health, Bay of Islands Netball Centre adopted a Whanau Safe policy which is all about zero tolerance for abuse or aggression on or near Lindvart Park courts.  Having an environment where whanau want to keep playing sport helps with achieving one of Hokianga Health’s focuses – the health and well-being of whanau. “Health and well-being are two of the most important things that lead to enjoying a good quality of life. The choices we make for ourselves and our whanau every day, such as what we eat, how active we are, whether we smoke, and how much alcohol we drink, all add up to have a major impact on our health and well-being”, Hokianga Health website.

Creating positive sporting experiences helps young people and whanau to develop a life-long love of sport, regardless of why they play.  This policy is also providing a platform for officials and umpires to feel empowered when making crucial calls, and it all adds to helping to change behaviours - participants are seeing sport being played that is demonstrating discipline and positive play.

Teams are observing that as a result umpires, players and supporter relationships on the court are positively resulting in people getting on with the core values of netball and whanaungatanga.

Hokianga Health assisted in having signage erected around the courts as a visual aid to reinforce the community around the positive expectations which has been made more powerful with including photos of local members of the centre and community.