Olympic alliance wants to help heal mental scars of bushfire

The Australian Olympic Committee, Paralympics Australia, Commonwealth Games Australia and the Australian Sports Foundation joined forces to announce the initiative at the AIS on Friday.

They'll use the ASF to raise funds to help rebuild sports facilities, replace equipment and help struggling families.

ASF chief executive Patrick Walker said the public can contribute by making tax-deductible donations to recovery.sportsfoundation.org.au, while anyone who needs help can apply for it through the same website.

Walker said they were also looking to tackle another serious problem created by bushfires.

"If you look at the research, for example into the Black Saturday bushfires, it shows the biggest long-term impacts of a natural disaster like this is to mental health," he said.

"Even five years after the Black Saturday bushfires, communities affected showed elevated levels of anxiety and stress and depression.

"Then you look at what is most important in combating those problems, rebuilding community resilience, there's three particular things that stand out.

"Getting back together with family and friends, participating in healthy activity and physical exercise, and getting back to normal routines.

"That's where community sport can play such a huge part in the healing process as we recover from these disasters."

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Our Olympians and Paralympians have already started going into the affected areas to help that mental healing process.

That will continue throughout the year, with the AOC also planning to set up "mini live sites" when the Tokyo Olympic Games begin in August.

"Equally important as raising funds is taking Olympians into the affected communities, rebuilding that community spirit," AOC boss Matt Carroll said.

"We've already started the last few days down the south coast of NSW.

"The Comm Games will do the same as will Paralympics Australia.

"It's one thing to raise funds, but most important is to rebuild that community spirit."

National Bushfire Recovery coordinator Andrew Colvin was thankful for the help sport had provided.

He said sport was such an important part of rural and regional life that it was important to rebuild the clubs and the facilities in those areas.

"We know in some of these rural and regional communities they galvanise around their sporting teams, they galvanise around the common parks that they have," Colvin said.

Canberra's Petria Thomas has already visited the NSW south coast to help provide an economic boost to the hard-hit area.

She was willing do so again in an official capacity as well.

The three-time Olympic gold medallist said it would be a slow recovery process, but one sport could play a crucial role in.

"Sport is a great device to bring people together," Thomas said.

"With the devastation that's occurred in many communities around Australia, sport has a real opportunity to give back and to bring communities together and help them in the slow recovery process."

Federal Sports Minister Richard Colbeck reassured the public the ASF would decide who received funding and not the government's controversial spreadsheet at the heart of the "sports rorts" affair.

He said there would also be an audit to determine the full extent of the damage the fires had done to the sporting community.

The government would then use the audit results to allocate their own funding on top of what the ASF raises.

Colbeck acknowledged the significant role sport had played in helping the bushfire relief effort.

That was largely started by Canberra tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who got the money rolling during the ATP Cup.

"Communities will be able to donate specifically to a community club," Colbeck said.

"This provides the opportunity for Australians to support a particular community if they want to - all managed by the Australian Sports Foundation - and I think it's a really good vehicle for the Australian community to help local communities to assist with their recovery after the fires."