Community Programs

Bounce Back & Big Bounce

Bounce Back is a 4-week rotational mentoring program focusing on empowering and guiding young people. Throughout the Bounce Back mentoring program, a guest mentor will provide guidance, share personal experiences, and facilitate discussions to help young people develop a strong foundation in the program's key areas. The program will adapt to the cognitive abilities and maturity levels of the youth, ensuring that the content is relevant and accessible to all participants.

Overall, the program provides young people with the necessary tools and support to transition successfully into a law-abiding and productive life after their release from the detention centers.

Big Bounce is a transitional program directly addressing reoffending risks and promotes positive connections to prosocial leisure and recreational activities. Big Bounce focuses on building a readiness to engage with other services and support that address various reoffending risks, including general welfare and support, as well as cultural needs. Big Bounce will also develop young people's ability to build effective communication skills to promote personal agency.

If you are interested in joining or supporting our community programs, please email bkyouthworkers@briankerlebasketball.com

THE BIG BOUNCE PROGRAM

HELPING IN-DETENTION AND AT-RISK YOUTHS

Our program uses basketball and sport to connect with young people to teach them about good habits and good choices. Our team of skilled youth workers are trained to connect with the young people to equip them with skills to succeed in life. We are very proud of the work we do in the Big Bounce Program as it has helped a number of young people escape a life of crime and go on to bigger and better things.

WOMEN IN SPORT PROGRAMS

FREE WOMEN IN SPORT PROGRAMS

We run a number of women in sport programs free to encourage young women to get involved in sport, make friends and make healthy choices in a safe, positive and fun environment.

Some of these programs include:

Free Women in Sport Basketball Clinics: Girls only basketball clinics run by some of the best female athletes in the nation.
Free Injury prevention clinics: Educating young women on methods to prevent injury
Free Women’s Strength & Conditioning: Classes run by women for women to help improve their overall fitness.
Women in Sport Merchandise: Selling pink shirts, jerseys and shorts will all proceeds going towards funding women in sport programs
Women in Sport Owls Jerseys: Each week, one Owls girls team is chosen to wear our pink Women in Sport Jerseys. This has been a massive success with the young girls and numerous teams from both boys and girls divisions have requested to wear them.
Women in Sport Ladies Lunch: Getting pro athletes to speak to young women and their mothers about their journeys, experiences and lessons.
Free Multicultural Ladies Clinics: Run Fridays at 10am for Mums to get together, have fun and get fit together. This has been a massive hit with over 20 ladies per week attending.
International Women’s Tours: We take girls teams overseas to compete in international

We take girls teams overseas to compete in international tournaments. We try to keep the price to a minimum and even sponsor some of these young women so that they can have a once in a lifetime experience abroad. This gives them the opportunity to experience basketball, culture and friendship overseas.

In Detention & Community

We work with a number of young women both in youth-detention and in the community via our Big Bounce Program. The aim of our program is to connect with the young women through sport and encourage them to make good life choices. Our youth mentors visit Youth Detention Centres two days per week and work in the community 3 days per week. Going into the all female section of the youth detention centre allows us to engage the girls by playing basketball, cards, handball, touch football and other games. This mentorship is extremely valuable to the young women for after they are released from youth detention. We also work with a number of at-risk youth to try and encourage them to make good choices to stay out of youth detention.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Programs

Programs

We run several free initiatives focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, including:

Free Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Clinics: Every school holidays we run a free Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinic for young people which is lead by a First Nations Coach.
Thursday Island Tour: Each year we bring 3 female and 3 male players over to the Thursday Island in the Torres Strait to compete in the Zenadth Kes Basketball Competition. Whilst over there we connect with the youth, give out free merchandise and play basketball to expose them to a different style and level of basketball.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scholarships: We give out scholarships to young First Nations athletes who have financial hardship. This allows them to play and train for free with the BK Owls.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sponsorship: We sponsor young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes to join us on our international tours.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander merchandise: Every year we create merchandise for NAIDOC week aimed to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. We commission artists who are already involved with our BK programs and print our merchandise through First Nations owned companies. All proceeds go towards funding our free First Nations Programs.
Free NAIDOC 3x3 Tournament: Every year we run a Free NAIDOC 3x3 Basketball Tournament to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture.
Regional outreach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: We go out to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to teach them about healthy life choices and give out free merchandise.

Engagement & Impact

We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs. In 2024, we ran over 30 First Nations clinics, tournaments and seminars in more than 10 locations around Queensland including Thursday Island, Stradbroke Island, Cherbourg, Cunnamulla and more! Our impact on the lives of young First Nations people is not quantifiable by numbers, but by the good news stories we so regularly have. We have recently worked with a young woman from Cherbourg and developed her into a representative level basketball player, took her on an international tour to Taiwan, helped her earn a Diploma of Sport and encouraged and nurtured her love for Aboriginal art. We are proud to have worn her artwork on our polos for our Free NAIDOC 3x3 tournament. Stories like these are what makes our work in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community so worthwhile, and we look forward to continuing this work as much as possible. Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs allow us to give back to the original custodians of this land in an ongoing and meaningful way. We provide opportunities for thousands of First Nations athletes to reach their potential whilst respecting and celebrating their culture.

Multicultural programs

Our organisation promotes multiculturalism and diversity as we believe all people should be treated equally. We celebrate multiculturalism through the following programs:

Free Multicultural Clinics: Every school holidays we run free multicultural clinics that host 60+ young basketball players. These clinics give all young people a chance to improve their skills and have fun.
Multicultural Merchandise: Our current “Together” campaign encourages our families to “embrace diversity together”. We give out free “Together” merchandise at our free multicultural clinics
Free Multicultural 3x3 Tournament: We run free 3x3 basketball tournaments on the Gold Coast to encourage diversity and give those who cannot afford to play in such tournaments a chance to compete, have fun and make new friends.
Free Multicultural Ladies Clinics: Our free multicultural ladies clinics are run on Fridays during the school day and allow mothers from all walks of life to come together and have fun playing basketball together.
International Tours: Each year we go on 3+ tours internationally. This exposes our young athletes to different cultures, styles of basketball and ways of thinking. We have received feedback from multiple young people that it is a life-changing opportunity for them.
Hosting International Teams: Last year alone we hosted 3 international teams. By hosting these teams, we are able to help our friends from other countries whilst giving our young athletes an opportunity to experience different game styles and culture.
Community Events for Local Cultural Groups: We often run small basketball stalls for local cultural groups that allow our young people to give back to the community and learn about other cultures.

This approach has been put in place to encourage young people to be open minded, inclusive and welcoming. We have seen overwhelmingly positive outcomes from these programs, with our families experiencing new cultures. It has especially opened their eyes to opportunities overseas with our tours.

Regional Outreach

Our Regional Outreach Program ensures that youth all over Queensland get access to high-quality mentorship, coaching, seminars and education. We believe that those living in disadvantaged areas still deserve to have access to the same resources and experience the same programs as those living in the city.

We have run a number of regional outreach programs over the past year towns all over Queensland including:

Cherbourg, Murgon and Kingaroy: We work with remote Aboriginal communities to encourage healthy choices and teach them to have good habits. We connect with the young people through free school and club basketball programs.
Cunnamulla and Quilpie: We travel to regional Queensland to work with the youth through basketball clinics and mentorship classes.
Hervey Bay, Maryborough and Gympie: Our BK Regional Tour takes us to the Wide Bay region. A number of their coaches reached out to us as their areas are neglected by high level basketball coaches. So we go up yearly for a tour and they come to Brisbane yearly to train and play against us. From this, we formed the Wide Bay Waves, who tour Taiwan every year to play in the TYAI Cup. For some of them, it was their first time ever being on a plane, let alone playing against international competition.
Thursday Island: Each year we bring 3 female and 3 male players to compete in the Zenadth Kes Basketball Tournament. This allows us to connect with the Torres Strait Islander Community up there. This program has yielded amazing results, with Thursday Island teams travelling to Brisbane to compete in our tournaments and get training, mentorship and merchandise for free. A number of Torres Strait Islander athletes have also come to Brisbane to join our Academy. Some have even gone on to become Brian Kerle Basketball employees and helped mentor youth themselves.
BK Academy Regional Pathway: Last year, our Academy was made up of more than 50% of regional athletes. These athletes studied a diploma of sport whilst training and playing basketball. We offer this pathway to regional athletes to experience a professional sporting environment whilst getting an education.

Our regional outreach programs give young people in remote areas access to coaching, mentorship, seminars and education that they usually wouldn’t be available to them. We find this work has impacted the lives of thousands of young people. We have even been told that it has changed their lives and put them on a path to success.

Programs

We run a wide range of programs to help inspire youth.

Free Clinics

School Programs

Youth Detention Centres

Mentorship

Community Programs

Homeschool Program

The BK Family

The "BK Family" is a term affectionately given to those involved with Brian Kerle Basketball, as youth and families alike find a sense of belonging with the organisation. We always say, you are never alone at BK Basketball.

Youth Work

Youth Detention Centres

Brian has organised a program called "Big Bounce" to help young people in youth detention centres. Youth mentors and coaches connect with the kids through basketball and educate them on making the right choices to help them reach their potential.

At Risk & Underprivileged Youth

Brian sends a team of dedicated coaches and youth mentors to connect with youth who are at risk or underpriveleged. He provides good role models for their lives to steer them in the right direction.

Remote Communities

Brian travels out to remote communities such as Cherbourg, Cunnamulla, Thursday Island and Stradbroke Island to deliver programs for young people who wouldn't usually receive the same opportunities. This is close to Brian's heart as he grew up in regional Mount Isa.

Homeschool Program

Brian invites hundreds of homeschool children and their families participate in free basketball clinics all over Brisbane.

The Team

Meet our amazing team of Bounce Back and Big Bounce mentors.

Jack Salt

Youth Mentor

Brisbane Bullets
NCAA Champion at Virginia
New Zealand Under 20s

Tamuri Wigness

Youth Mentor

Brisbane Bullets
Australian u19 Emus
NBA Basketball Without Borders Camp

Let’s Work Together

Get in touch so we can start working together.