The organisation unveiled on Wednesday the ASC Restorative Program for Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holders who suffered abuse or injustice throughout their time at the Canberra campus.

The initiative is open to more than 9000 athletes who held scholarships between 1981 and 2013.

Three key pillars underline the program; access to counselling and mental health services, the opportunity to engage with senior ASC officials and a one-off financial payment for eligible athletes.

The payments are not compensation, rather an acknowledgement of past trauma. Athletes will be awarded funds ranging from $5000 to $50,000, to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Officials have worked with athletes and experts across a range of fields to design a scheme that can help victims move forward and potentially re-engage with sport.

"There are so many elements of the way we engage young people in that environment that really on any modern test need to be adjusted and need to be supported," Perkins said.

"I personally have a very, very strong view that all young people who are involved in sport should finish their experience as happy, well-adjusted humans who are advocates for sport into the future.

"When we have so many of our young people who come out of their sporting experience not wanting to ever be anywhere near it or involved in it again, we're failing and the system needs to be better than that."

The restorative program comes as sports have faced a reckoning for past injustices.

The ASC board formally apologised last May to former AIS athletes who were treated inappropriately.

The apology came on the back of a review into gymnastics in Australia that detailed abuse at the AIS.

The report also triggered the establishment of AIS Be Heard, a support service for current and past Australian high performance athletes.

Many sporting organisations have made big strides in supporting victims of abuse and implementing structural and cultural reforms to prevent future injustices.

Perkins acknowledged more needs to be done to ensure all Australians are able to enjoy sport in a safe environment.

"I would say we've still got an enormous amount of work to do, especially at the community and club level where it's harder to get directly involved with education," Perkins said.

"There's a lot more volunteers and a lot more people who really are just replicating the experiences they grew up with because they don't know a better way to do it.

"We're working hard to support all sport at all levels nationally to address that."

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