Evaluation of two Australian Rugby Union sports recruitment programs

Abstract

The focus of the evaluation was on how well the programs were implemented, the characteristics of participating children and families, and the impacts of the programs on the participants. The evaluation design was based on a program logic model developed in an earlier project, and used mixed data collection methods, including parent surveys (before and after the programs), focus groups with children participating, interviews with parents, rugby club members, teachers and ARU staff, and administrative data. The methods were implemented as planned, although there were some limitations, including lower numbers of children participating due to the unexpectedly low numbers of schools and children who took part in Gala Day, the lack of administrative data and the lower than expected response rate for the parent baseline survey (50% of all parents) and three month parent follow up survey (30% of all parents). Nevertheless, we are confident that this research provides a sound basis for further work in this area.