Brisbane Roar’s newest Community Manager David Minnis has dived straight into his new role as he looks to bring football to communities across Queensland.
Since coming on board in October, Minnis has been working on re-launching the club’s community program – Roar Active Program at schools in South-East Queensland.
The Roar Active Program is a unique way for primary school-aged children to develop their football skills and love the game while having fun in an engaging environment.
“The role has been great to get into and I have essentially been given a blank canvas to build the program and relationships with the community,” Minnis said.
“Each working day is different, either in the office, at schools, or meeting up with the local community.”
Over the past couple of months, Minnis has been taking the giant inflatable field to schools across Brisbane including Aspley State High School and St Mary of the Cross Catholic Primary School.
And come 2023, the Roar Active Program is expected to be bigger and better.
“A big part of what we are doing is to get back into schools and run our Roar Active Program through a 6 week of after school programs and half-day visits with our giant inflatable football field,” Minnis explained.
“We have managed to secure quite a few schools already for next year, as well as organising a School Holiday Clinic in January,” he added.
Outside of school programs, the Roar Active Program has been out in the community visiting local organisations and clubs including Warrigal State School and South West Queensland Thunder where they’ve donated match tickets, A-Leagues jerseys and other merchandise to be raffled off to raise funds for charities.
A donation of old shirts was also made to Vanuatu Football Shirt Charity, who sends shirts to clubs in the small Pacific nation so they have kits to play in.
Being able to work closely with the local community has already been an awarding experience.
“We’ve had a fantastic response from the schools and the interest they have expressed regarding our programs,” Minnis said. “The inflatable field always gets their attention, no matter what age they are.
“It’s also been great to help out some good causes by donating merchandise to them to raise funds.”
Minnis has high hopes to grow the Roar Active Program, and with Australia’s recent performance at the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it’s the perfect time to be involved in the sport.
“I’d love to grow the program in schools and get the kids excited about football and the club,” he said.
“Being able to draw in a new fanbase at home games as well as continuing to be a big part of the football community, would be wonderful to see.”
Find out more about Roar Active here.
