Using sponsorship to create healthy environments for sport, racing and arts venues in Western Australia

The development of healthy public policy and the creation of environments that Support health are two of the Ottawa Charter's goals for health promotion action. The Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (referred to as 'Healthway') is an independent statutory body funded by a levy raised on the wholesale sales of tobacco products. Healthway's legislative charter defines a number of objectives for the Foundation. These include: funding activities related to the promotion of good health; offering an alternative source of funds for sport, racing and arts activities previously supported by tobacco sponsorship; and supporting sport, racing and arts activities that encourage healthy lifestyles and advance health promotion programs. Healthway has interpreted this charter from a health promotion perspective and ties the offer of sponsorship to sport, racing and arts organisations with policies that create healthy environments. While the major focus of Healthway's healthy public policy interventions has been the creation of smoke-free environments, important gains have also been made in the provision of healthy food choices, safe alcohol practices, sun protection policies and access for disadvantaged groups. This paper describes the results of a survey of organisations funded by Healthway and explores the prevalence and reach of structural reforms in sport and cultural settings. The development of structural reform policies among different types of organisations receiving different levels of sponsorship is described. While not all of the structural reforms observed in this survey can be attributed to Healthway, it is clear from the research that Healthway has contributed to the rate of policy development amongst 'structural reform laggards'. The implications for 'active encouragement' of intersectoral co-operation through government sponsored grants is discussed.