An intervention to support the promotion of healthier environments at junior sports clubs: study protocol.

The purpose of the intervention is to assist junior sports clubs implement the following 16 policies and practices: 1) Alcohol is not available or consumed during junior competition; 2) Alcohol is not available or consumed at junior events or presentations; 3) Alcohol is not present in the change rooms when under 18 players are present; 4) Alcohol manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers or other businesses whose core function is to sell alcohol are not promoted or advertised by the club on any junior apparel; 5) Alcohol is not used for prizes, rewards or for fundraising; 6) The club is compliant with the relevant state tobacco legislation; 7) The club promotes all junior events as smoke free; 8) Water is promoted as the drink of choice for junior players; 9) Multiple healthy food and beverage (e.g. fruit, vegetables and non-sugar sweetened drink) options are available at the canteen or barbeque; 10) The purchase of healthy choices at the canteen or barbeque are promoted by ensuring healthy food and beverage options are displayed prominently 11) The club encourages parents to provide healthy snacks (e.g. fruit and water) for junior players 12) The club has a Participation Policy that it communicates to members, coaches, officials and volunteers to ensure junior players are provided with equal opportunities for participation at both training and during games; 13) The club conducts at least one recruitment activity per year prior to the beginning of the winter sporting season to attract new junior players and retain current players; 14) The club has a Code of Conduct Policy which it communicates to all members, and ensures member agreement is recorded; 15) The club has a Spectator Behaviour Policy that is promoted and clearly visible at the club; 16) The club has a written Good Sports Junior policy, which outlines the club’s practices with regards to alcohol consumption, tobacco use, healthy eating and physical activity. The intervention will consist of face-to-face, web- and phone-based support to assist junior sporting clubs implement health promoting practices. Implementation support will be provided over one winter sports season in Australia, which usually runs for 6 months (March to August). Implementation support staff will be based at the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. Support staff will not be required to have any particular qualifications, however they will have experience in previous Good Sports Service Delivery. Support staff will offer assistance to intervention clubs by contacting them three times by email and three times by phone throughout the intervention period, with the mode of contact alternating each month. The first phone contact will last for approximately 30 minutes and will focus on reviewing the clubs current practices, which support staff will record using an online customer relationship management (CRM) system. The CRM system will then generate action plans which will help clubs to identify the practices they need to implement. Resources will be sent to clubs after the first telephone contact including posters to hang at the club and news templates about topics such as healthy snacks, code of conduct, and alcohol free events that clubs can use on their social media pages, websites or club newsletters. The remaining two phone calls will check on the clubs progress in implementing the identified practices and will last for around 10-15 minutes. The three email contacts from support staff will identify practices that clubs might like to focus on in the coming month. Support staff will encourage club representatives to provide evidence of the implementation of the intervention strategies via the upload of policies, photos, and copies of emails to club members onto the online CRM system. In addition to the six contacts initiated by support staff, automated theme-based emails will also be sent to clubs monthly throughout the sporting season. These emails will each contain content relevant to the five themes of: 1) conduct; 2) healthy eating; 3) alcohol; 4) smoking; and 5) member conduct. For example, the automated alcohol themed email will emphasise the importance of changing the club’s culture around alcohol for junior members and include some key messages for the club to share on their social media pages. The messages will be included at the end of the email so clubs can copy these messages directly onto their Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages. Key messages for the alcohol email will include short sentences about the potential risks and harms of alcohol consumption, and the importance of role-modelling for junior players. The intervention will also include the following evidence-based strategies to support implementation: 1. Management support – research staff will be allocated time to speak to club representatives about the research study at a Football League meeting, which all clubs attend. Football Leagues will endorse the intervention to their clubs via email and encourage their clubs participation and progress through the program. 2. Policies and procedures – club representatives will be provided with hardcopy and electronic templates to assist clubs develop health promotion policies. Examples of recruitment strategies that can be used to attract new junior players to the club, and retain current players, will also be supplied. 3. Recognition and reward systems – clubs will be provided with ongoing recognition of progress (e.g. upon completion of an action item, at monthly contacts) to promote sustained engagement. Progress will be recognised and rewarded with a certificate of accreditation. A digital asset pack (copy and paste templates for the club’s social media pages and website) will be provided to clubs when they have achieved accreditation. Clubs will also be provided with a ‘case study template’ that they can provide to their local media outlet, which will showcase their participation in the program. 4. Information systems – a customer relationship management (CRM) system will allow research staff to monitor the progress of each club towards achieving the intervention criteria and provide real time feedback. Clubs will be provided with tailored action plans generated by the CRM system. 5. Systems and prompts – electronic reminders (e.g. emails) will be used to prompt the implementation of pre-specified health promotion practices. 6. Informal culture – clubs will be encouraged to select rounds of the junior competition, or a junior event, to focus on promoting the intervention informally (i.e. the alcohol awareness round, or the healthy juniors round). 7. External courses – clubs will be provided with an alcohol management toolkit to increase awareness of alcohol legislation and best practice strategies to manage alcohol in their setting. 8. Human resources – research staff will be allocated to help clubs implement the intervention. These research staff will also monitor and provide feedback on implementation of practices. Assistance will be provided via regular phone and email contact with individual club representatives (once per month) during the winter season to maintain support. 9. Physical resources – a comprehensive kit of hard copy resources will be provided to clubs upon commencement of participation. The kit will include: posters promoting alcohol free junior competitions; alcohol free change room signs; a list of alternate prizes to alcohol; smoke-free posters; a canteen whiteboard to promote healthy food and beverage options prominently; a safe food handling poster; letter templates for clubs to send to parents to encourage them to provide healthy snacks for juniors; a playing environment sign with the Good Sports code of conduct prominently displayed, and other similar signs, posters and letter templates. Clubs will be provided with policy templates for all of the targeted behaviours (alcohol, smoking, healthy eating, physical activity and playing environment). Additionally, electronic versions of resources will be provided to junior clubs throughout winter season via email, including the policy templates, posters and signage. All toolkits and resources in the intervention have been developed by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. Links to industry experts (i.e. healthy food and beverage suppliers) will also be provided. A lead sporting person for each participating football code (AFL or Rugby League) will endorse the intervention through hard-copy and digital (e.g. video) resources.