Campbell helps 'Close the Gap' every day

by NRL

Last week Preston Campbell flew to London on behalf of rugby league to accept an international Beyond Sport Award for the game's work in affecting social change. Today he was back on the ground, delivering one of the sorts of programs that contributed to that accolade.

Titans 4 Tomorrow and Learn Earn Legend! ambassador Campbell along with former NRL players Dean Widders and Clinton Toopi today joined a group of 45 Indigenous students from Doomadgee, Mornington Island and Cherbourg for a range of educational workshops at the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE.

As part of the 'Close the Gap' activities ahead of this weekend's clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the Jetstar Titans are hosting the group of students for a week-long Titans Achievement Program (TAP) workshop in partnership with the Federal Government's 'Close The Gap' initiatives.

The 'Close the Gap' round will also see the Jetstar Titans show their support for reducing the life expectancy gap of more than a decade between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by donning special limited edition adidas jerseys designed by Campbell on Sunday.

But for Campbell, the 'Close the Gap' theme is something that exists every day.

"Close the Gap' is really a day-to-day thing for myself,'' said Campbell.

"It's great for it to be a week - the NRL do a great job in a lot of programs and helping out communities, especially the Indigenous community.

"The Close the Gap round is really important not just for Indigenous people but also for non-Indigenous people to get some knowledge about why it is so important to Indigenous people. The NRL play a really good part in that.''

Campbell said the students participating in this week's Titans Achievement Program would take real qualifications and skills back to their communities.

"Hopefully they can go back to their communities and keep going with their studies and hopefully get some employment out of it,'' he said.

Campbell said it was fitting that to highlight this weekend's Close the Gap round, the club was taking on Souths - another club which supports Indigenous community programs.

"There's a big population of Indigenous people in Sydney especially around the Redfern area and Redfern is a community that South Sydney love and really put a lot back into,'' he said.

"One of their programs is the Souths Cares, they play a big part in helping some young people come through some difficult things down their way.''

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