Lead to Leaders program supports Women in Bowls
Bowls Victoria has secured funding through Sport and Recreation Victoria’s Change Our Game grant scheme, for our dedicated Lead to Leaders program. This funding has been committed to help sixty-four women across the state improve their skillset in the areas of Coaching and Governance. Here’s how it’s been going.
Our first coaching course was completed on the 24th November, with the next two courses completed this week (December 2025). Our final course will be scheduled for early 2026. BV’s Training & Education Manager Matt Ottobre has facilitated the coaching courses.
We know that women make up 30% of Victorian bowlers, but are less than 16% of qualified coaches. The completion of the club coach courses is helping to increase that number with 32 newly qualified female coaches joining their ranks at the end of the program.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with such passionate BV members that are keen to start their coaching career and make a difference in their Club,” said Matt.
Governance training aims to boost participation
The Victorian State Government are committed to achieving a gender split of 40% men, 40% women and 20% any gender across all boards of management, committees and subcommittees. Our Lead to Leaders governance training aims to help BV affiliated clubs get closer to that commitment.
In early December, our first governance training session was facilitated by BV’s Participation Coordinator Glen Sodaitis and BV’s President Pat Schram. The response from participants has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It was fabulous to get this wonderful program underway. I was pleased to see some women I knew, and I was equally thrilled to meet some I didn’t know,” says Pat.
“The session started with quite a lot of information, but everyone was totally engaged. Then, when each participant shared a little story introducing themselves, their desire to be involved in this program was obvious. A great start!'”
The governance training aims to improve participants’ understanding and confidence in the areas of foundational governance, risk management, and organisational culture, while also providing a working group through which ideas can be shared and explored with peers.
Participants in Lead to Leaders were successful applicants for our program which is supported by funding from Sport and Recreation Victoria’s “Change Our Game” grant scheme.
