Essendon Football Club is always ahead of the curve and preparing, like the nation’s leading policy makers, for the Indian-Asian century.

The Club is currently undertaking a range of activities to engage the Indian population of Melbourne, particularly those residing in the North-West.

The 2011 census suggests that since 2006 Melbourne’s Indian-born population has doubled.

Furthermore, discounting Australian-born, there are more Indian-born residents residing in Essendon than any other nationality -a truly changing community.

“The local population growth within the Indian community is compelling and represents a very exciting opportunity for the club and for local residents,” Essendon Community Manager Cameron Britt said.

“Essendon Football Club is attending a range of conference and learning opportunities, meeting key stakeholders and holding a series of local and targeted events to strengthen our ties with an important and growing community within our region”.

The Club’s Multicultural Program was established to develop opportunities to engage people from diverse cultural background in the game of Australian football with the view to broaden both the participation and supporter base in the game.

Last year, Essendon Football Club was awarded the Multicultural Business Award (Marketing) at the Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence.

The award was presented by the Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship and recognised the club’s sustained commitment to multicultural affairs and involvement initiatives such as the Unity Cup, Multicultural Schools Program, Andrew Welsh Auskick and the club’s feature film ‘Falling for Sahara’.

The award also recognised the GLoBALL program and the way it has innovatively engaged participants to use sport as a vehicle for social cohesion in the wider Victorian community.