Summary of 2023 activities A target was set for 2023 for the delivery of 8 ACE Programmes, with 2 being held outside of Auckland. We budgeted for the costs of a Lead Coach and an Assistant Coach to attend each ACE Programme at a total cost of NZ$13,984. A ball machine is an integral part of the ACE Programme delivery. To date we have been availed a donated ball machine. This year we budgeted for a new ball machine for NZ$1,600. Given 2 ACE Programmes were intended to be delivered outside of Auckland, we budgeted for a new equipment kit of rackets, nets and balls and a refresh of our existing Auckland kit totalling NZ$3,000. Our total budgeted costs for the 2023 year were NZ$18,584. In 2023, we delivered 6 ACE Programmes and were not able to deliver the ACE Programme outside of Auckland. The delivery outside of Auckland was affected by the availability of coaches. The delivery in Auckland was affected by reduced school rolls coming out of COVID. Low decile Auckland Primary schools have been badly affected by reduced rolls. COVID has had an effect, as well as the redevelopment of housing in the school area. At both of our schools, this has impacted their budgets and their ability to retain full staffing. Both schools have been immensely appreciative of having the ACE Programme at their school. In Auckland we delivered the ACE Programme to 99 disadvantaged children with an average attendance of 16.5 children per ACE Programme. Given each child attends 8 one-hour lessons, it is an equivalent of 792 child hours. We were extremely fortunate to have the support of the Lavie Tennis Academy in gratuitously supplying coaches (both Lead and Assistant) during the year. Lavie sees the extension of the elite coaches into teaching life skills to disadvantaged children as being a valuable adjunct to their development and a contribution of the Academy to the community. Accordingly, we were able to keep our paid coaching costs to NZ$3,590 for the year. We were also able to obtain a one-off Cube ball machine at a discounted price of NZ$900. It works a treat. Our total costs were NZ$4,603, considerably less than our budget of NZ$18,584 with 75% of our lessons delivered, albeit to a slightly lower audience number. 2023 was the first year we ventured outside our ICNZ membership for funding. We were successful with 2 local council Quick Response funding grants, each for NZ$1,000. It was a start. Our ICNZ membership continued to support the ACE Programme financially with an auction at our ICNZ AGM Dinner in May 2023. Tennis Auckland very generously provided 2 tickets to the ASB Classic Finals which were auctioned on the night. In addition, Cam Norrie provided some signed tennis gear. We raised in excess of NZ$2,000 that evening for the ACE Programme. Our measure of impact is our Online Questionnaire completed by the students at the end of the ACE Programme. We are enamoured by the response from the Bairds Mainfreight Primary School, but we have more work to do with Glen Innes Primary.
