Young Aboriginal leaders smash stereotypes and share what works.
Keen to keep kids out of “lock up” and engaged in healthy lifestyles, education, training and employment, a group of young Aboriginal men take action.
The four young men featured in the video- Beau, Trei, Michael and Karl have been accessing Weave’s Kool Kids Club program for a number of years and are passionate about expanding the health and fitness program they initiated so that more disadvantaged kids
can have access to a better life.
These young men are outraged about the disparity in health, life expectancy, incarceration and education rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians and they have decided enough is enough and it’s time to change this.
The program is used as a vehicle to engage at risk children and young people, to connect them to peer support and mentoring and instill in them the value of health, fitness and positive engagement in society. It’s a holistic program
that addresses not just the obvious diet, fitness and healthy lifestyle factors but also supports kids to attend and engage in education and training with the ultimate aim of creating career and employment pathways.
Having experienced the positive impact of the program themselves, the boys have advocated to expand it, so that other Aboriginal children and young people can benefit. To this end they sought support from Weave to launch this Start Some Good campaign.
Weave Youth & Community Services values and supports youth participation and ideas that drive change and create social impact.
We know that young people who engage in this program will:
- ** Improve their health and fitness
- ** Be more motivated to go to school
- ** Reduce or completely stop smoking, using drugs and other substances
- ** Have better skills to deal with issues in their lives
The program wants to partner with local Universities and TAFE to recruit Aboriginal personal trainers, nutritionists, life coaches and mentors to facilitate the program. We believe this is important as we hope to strengthen community engagement and provide
opportunities for young people to work closely with professionals from the same cultural background.
Expected outcomes of employing Aboriginal health professionals:
- Young people will be inspired to finish school and go on to university
- Young people will be exposed to possible health career opportunities
- Young people are mentored by Aboriginal university students
- Aboriginal university students are given employment opportunities to develop their skills
The program will also provide a pick up and drop off service. This will ensure that young people are going to school/training/employment.
Help support these young people drive the change they know works.
Donate and help their vision become a reality.
Be part of the solution.
