Midnight Basketball, A Community Program For At-Risk Youth

Midnight Basketball Australia supports communities to run free local basketball tournaments for 12 to 18 year olds. It is a positive, highly structured and life-changing activity filling a gap during the high-risk periods of Friday and Saturday nights.

Our primary goal is to help ‘at-risk’ youth build skills and confidence, and embrace positive opportunities.

Held over eight weeks, each tournament night includes a hot, nutritious dinner, followed by a compulsory life skills workshop, then at least three games of competition basketball. A bus takes all players home by midnight. Run in local basketball stadiums, the nights provide a high-energy, safe and motivating environment.

Grand Final Night, Bankstown

In keeping with the motto ‘No Workshop, No Jumpshot’, players must attend compulsory workshops in order to play basketball. Topics range from health and wellbeing, drugs and alcohol to important life skills like courtesy, respect, conflict resolution and financial literacy, as well as job readiness.

Celebrating 200 tournaments in 2016, Midnight Basketball is supported by communities across Australia — from Wodonga to Redfern, to Toowoomba, to Darwin, to Geraldton — and relies on the help of thousands of kind volunteers.

Our program encourages local communities to embrace their disengaged youth, building their confidence to believe in a more positive future. At Midnight Basketball, we believe this changes their outlook on life and allows messages about staying at school, continuing into training and launching a career to become meaningful.

It’s great fun for the youth and volunteers, and provides an opportunity for everyone in the local community to get involved.

Testimonial

Samantha with her heroes, the Perth Wildcats

A key focus of the workshops is job-readiness and exploring the many career paths available.

A fascinating story emerged last year from one of our participants, Samantha, who has been a committed Midnight Basketballer in Bankstown since Season 1.

Having become a Volunteer Coach, Samantha related a story about her life and how she decided to become an aeronautical engineer after watching the film Black Hawk Down. She was so affected by a part of the plot, where troops undertaking a rescue mission died due to rotary blade failure, that she decided she wanted to make military helicopters that can dispatch troops on both sides faster and more safely. Against great odds, she did everything possible, including being the first female high school student to take a VET course in metal and engineering, giving herself the best possible chance of achieving her dream.

Samantha also recounted the personal growth she achieved at Midnight Basketball by being part of a team environment.

‘Engineers stress [that] teamwork is essential and cooperation is needed within the team. I believe team sport has made me the person I am today. The ability to work in a team and enjoying doing so gave me the extra skills to achieve my goals.’

We know Samantha will be another Midnight Basketball inspiring success story. We are incredibly proud of her efforts.

To enquire about Midnight Basketball in your community, visit www.midnightbasketball.org.au.

By Tess White — CEO, Midnight Basketball Australia