Reflecting on 2025 WSYD Moving Journey and What’s Next
From Milestones to Momentum
As the new year begins, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on WSYD Moving’s first full year as a charity and share what lies ahead in 2026.
2025 was a year focused on laying strong foundations formalising our governance, strengthening our partnerships across health, local government, sport, academia and communities, and translating the intent of our White Paper co-authored with Western Sydney University into tangible, place-based action.
We hosted six virtual communities of practice and convened five Liverpool Local Active Partnership meetings from the inaugural launch in late 2024. We are committed to leading the local coalition in Liverpool and are hopeful to get some funding to support this work soon.
We made it to NSW Parliament with Liverpool MP Charishma Kaliyanda, delivering a Private Members Statement acknowledging our systemic efforts to combat inactivity and inequity in Western Sydney with the goal of inspiring movement in the region.
We successfully launched the Camden Local Active Partnership after receiving our maiden grant through Wests Macarthur. I would like to acknowledge the support from Liverpool Council and Camden Council with fantastic leadership support from South Western Sydney Local Health District supporting both Local Active Partnerships (LAPs) and their trust in this way of working.
The Camden LAP launch brought together 73 local stakeholders, with the local system collectively identifying six priority areas for action. These priorities include:
Activation and Use of Open Space
Social Connectedness and Safety
Changing Lives and Households
Population Growth, Walkability and Transport
Equity and Diverse Populations
Access to Sport
Through our partnership with Camden Council, we also facilitated its annual Sports Forum, deepening collaboration with sports working together on place-based solutions.
We also celebrated NAIDOC Week with the AFL at its Indigenous Academy, marking 20 years since its founding.
Symposium 2025
We saw record attendance at our annual Symposium, which was held at the Western Sydney Convention Centre, Penrith. The Symposium, now its third year, has grown from 105 delegates in 2023 to 165 delegates in 2024 and 208 delegates in 2025 with 43 speakers last year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our event partners (below) without whose support this would not be possible.
Platinum
Gold
Silver
Heart Foundation Australia
At the Symposium, we were thrilled that the NSW Health Minister Ryan Park announced a $50,000 investment into the charity.
This funding will help us mobilise system-wide engagement and partnerships to improve physical activity in Western Sydney, expanding the LAPs into Blacktown and the Blue Mountains, building on Liverpool and Camden LAPs.
2026
Looking ahead to 2026, we are excited to deliver the inaugural Systems Leadership Program, a five-month learning journey bringing together leaders from government, health, academia, leisure, sport and community. This was another step outlined in our White Paper.
We now have over 450 practitioners, researchers and academics part of the network across over 130 organisations. We will continue to illuminate pockets of excellence, connect and convene and grow our ‘movement for movement’.
It’s apparent that improving physical activity levels means we must do better working more collaboratively across sectors to make active lifestyles the norm for all. With limited resourcing and funding available, this means more listening, curiosity and action with shared agendas which we will collaboratively lead through the LAP’s, community of practice, systems leadership, symposium and delivery pilots.
Thanks for your support to date. We are grateful and look forward to making a bigger difference this year.