Phu kept showing up
He came through the estate programs as a kid. He now runs the club and sits on the board.
Phu Nguyen came through Yarra's public housing programs as a participant — one of the kids the sessions were built for.
He kept showing up. Today he is President of Yarra Futsal Ballers and an Executive Board Member of Home Ground Hub, which means the person deciding what gets run is someone who once needed it run for him.
Yarra Futsal Ballers is free. That is deliberate. Cost, transport, confidence, cultural barriers and a lack of obvious next steps are the things that stop people starting a sport, or quietly stop them continuing — so the club removes them one at a time and keeps the door open.
Juniors on Monday afternoons and seniors on Thursday nights at Bundha in Fitzroy North; social seven-a-side on Sunday afternoons in Richmond. From there the pathway keeps going — into teams, competitions, coaching and mentoring.
That is the whole model in one person. Come down as a kid, stay because you belong, end up running the thing. Phu is not the exception Home Ground Hub points to. He is what it is trying to repeat.
