Update from New Zealand 2022 ACE Programme 2022 Report to ICP 23 December 2022 ACE Programme 2022 – “Emerging from the Pandemic” After more than a year’s break, the ACE Programme restarted in Q4 2022 at a familiar school, Bairds Mainfreight Primary School, in Otara, South Auckland. It was important to us that we restarted in familiar surroundings with a new goal of seeking potential coaching leaders of our ACE Programmes for 2023. Campbell Cramer-Roberts, our Head Coach, led our Q4 2022 ACE Programme. We worked with 2 classes of children, each class separately for an hour, over an 8-week period. All in all, involving 44 children; a total of 352 child tuition hours. Interestingly, Bairds expressed a preference for the same children from Q1 2021 to run through the Q4 2022 ACE Programme. The school has been significantly disrupted throughou the pandemic (their roll has declined by 20% which has affected their funding and teaching staff numbers), so we willingly obliged their request. We had concerns, that the impact of the ACE Programme would be reduced; we were very pleasantly surprised with the impact (please note the attached comments from children), and we note the value of having extremely supportive teachers as part of the delivery. Coaches & Volunteers During the year we were approached by Sebastian Lavie, ICNZ member and founder of the Lavie Tennis Academy with an offer to provide support to the ACE Programme. Sebastian has worked within the Mouratoglou Academy in Paris and continues to retain close ongoing connections. The Lavie Tennis Academy works with young elite players, but Sebastian has been seeking an outlet for philanthropic assistance within the sport. During 2022 he has provided both coaching and financial support to the ACE Programme for which we are immensely grateful. For the duration of the 16 ACE Programme lessons (2 classes over 8 weeks), Lavie Tennis Academy provided 2 coaches to support the delivery of the programme. In addition, we had a full-time assistant coach to our Head Coach and several coaching volunteers along the way. The ratio of coach/volunteers to child, including the teacher (who was always on hand and participating) was 1 to 4. There is no question that this ratio provides high quality delivery. During the Q4 2022 ACE Programme, we have identified 4 coaches who we believe have the potential to lead ACE Programmes in 2023, under the guidance of our Head Coach. ACE Charitable Trust The ACE Charitable Trust was established in 2020 to raise funds and operate the ACE Programme to disadvantaged children in New Zealand. The trust was granted tax donee status in 2020. The four trustees (all ICNZ members) are elected by the ICNZ Committee. The trustees are responsible for ensuring that all protocols are being met in relation to the ICP and ICNZ Child Protection Policies, and to the extent of the ICP requirements, have submitted all necessary material to ICP in August 2022. The trustees meet formally throughout the year and in September 2022 signed off on the financial statements (to 31 March 2022) for the trust. At the same time, the trustees submitted the Annual Return and Performance Report for the trust to NZ Charities Services, the governmental charitable trust administrator. ACE Programme Lessons During 2022, we documented the 8 lessons (please see attached). These one-page briefings compliment the videos we have for each lesson, the videos of which are usually 5 to 6 minutes of visual explanation. Both will help explain the delivery to new coaching leaders of the ACE Programme and help in introducing the ACE Programme to potential funders in the future. We note that our ACE Programme promotional video was shown at an ICP fundraising event at Wimbledon during the year. We hope it was helpful to ICP. Local Funding To date the ACE Programme has relied upon ICNZ member funding and ICP seed funding. Both have been extremely valuable in establishing the ACE Programme. However, if the ACE Programme is going to make a wider impact in the future, then further avenues of funding need to be developed. The ACE Programme, with its emphasis on teaching life skills through tennis tuition, sits right in the wheelhouse of the efforts of both central and local government agencies and various sporting agencies to bring real benefits to underprivileged children. These agencies, together with other charitable trusts, were significantly affected by the COVID pandemic, with many of their initiatives put on hold. The ACE Programme now has the collateral and track record to present to these organisations. This includes ACE Programme governance, a promotional video, lesson videos, lesson documentation, coaching experience, feedback from schools, feedback from children. We are well positioned to present our credentials, and this activity will be our main objective for 2023. We very much appreciate all the support provided by ICP Russell Tills Chair, ACE Charitable Trust ICNZ Vice President
