Workshop 1.2: Protecting Sport for The Next Generation
Tracks
Managing Sport
| Wednesday, July 1, 2026 |
| 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM |
Details
Creating safe and postive environemtns for children and young people who want to participate in community activities, from exercise, to recreation to sport.
Speaker
Christine Bland
Strategic Lead - Active Children and Young People People
Greater Manchester Moving
GM Moving’s Commitment to Creating Positive Physical Activity Experiences for Children and Young People
Biography
Christine is the Strategic Lead – Active Children and Young People at Greater Manchester Moving, the Active Partnership for Greater Manchester. With over 25 years’ experience in sport and physical activity across Local Government, Education and the voluntary sector, she brings deep expertise to her role.
For the past four years, Christine has provided strategic leadership whilst fostering collaboration among sectors, partners, and organisations across Greater Manchester, as well as at regional and national levels. Her work focuses on building positive, meaningful relationships to promote movement, physical activity, and sport for all children and young people. She is dedicated to ensuring they engage in daily physical activity with greater choice and meaningful input, all within safe, age-appropriate spaces.
Christine engages with partners to drive transformational, policy and cultural change, focusing on reducing inactivity and inequalities to enable active lives for all.
Teale Blessington
General Manager
Netball Queensland
Chair
Biography
As General Manager – Netball at Netball Queensland, Teale is responsible for driving growth and enhancing the capability and capacity of the netball system, with a focus on participation, diversity and inclusion, First Nations engagement, and NQ-sanctioned competitions.
Teale also plays a key role in both strategic and operational aspects of government and stakeholder relations, as well as in the planning and delivery of infrastructure developments to support and advance netball at all levels throughout Queensland.
Lisa Purves
Director, Safeguarding
Sport Integrity Australia
What does safe sport mean to the next generation of participants?
Biography
Lisa is the Director of Safeguarding at Sport Integrity Australia, having joined the agency in 2023 to lead its national safeguarding function. In this role, she oversees the development of safeguarding policies, resources and education programs designed to strengthen the capability of sporting organisations and individuals to create safe and supportive environments for children and young people.
Lisa provides national leadership on safeguarding reform, informed by the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. She advocates for improvements to culture, governance and organisational practice across the sport sector, emphasising the importance of strong leadership, clear standards and community‑wide commitment to child safety.
Prior to joining Sport Integrity Australia, Lisa held senior roles at the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian, where she led initiatives to build organisational capability to implement the Child Safe Standards. She contributed to the implementation of the Standards in NSW and in the development and administration of the Working With Children Check legislation.
Lisa’s expertise includes community engagement strategies that support organisations working with children to understand how harm occurs and how it can be prevented. She is also a member of SportWest’s Child Safeguarding Advisory Group, contributing to sector-wide efforts to strengthen safeguarding practice