CEO Nicki Bardwell, recently shared Fair Game’s insights into how our approach to health education improves health outcomes in remote Australia
In September, Fair Game CEO, Nicki Bardwell presented at the National Rural Health Conference 2026 in Adelaide. Her presentation titled Re-thinking preventative health strategies in remote communities through gamified engagement and youth-led outreach, examined the key design elements that make Fair Game’s programs effective and responsive to the unique needs of remote communities.
Reviewing results from Fair Game’s Fit & Healthy in the Outback program in 2025, which reached over 8000 session participants across 35 remote communities, showed a 52% improvement in awareness of causes of chronic diseases and healthy preventative behaviours amongst participants.
Nicki discussed how this was achieved by prioritising engagement through a youth led team and accessible learning techniques that have an emphasis on visual resources and gamification to motivate behavioural change and improve health outcomes. Close collaboration with communities through consistent, long term relationships was shown to build trust, critical for creating a sustained impact.