Project Overview:
Glam Girls, Nylang Kids Media Project and Kids Rock (the program to engage young men through art and music) are continuing to engage young people from the Kimberley, supporting them to develop healthy lifestyles through a variety of activities.
Over the past year the Glam Girls program has engaged over 55 young women from Kununurra in a variety of workshops promoting healthy lifestyles. Topics have included healthy eating, fitness and wellbeing, sexual health, self esteem and personal development, future goals and aspirations and youth leadership. Despite challenges in fostering regular attendance the program has worked with a core group of 12-15 young women who regularly attended and who have shown increased awareness to a range of personal and community health issues over the course of 2009.
Kids Rock has also had a very eventful year, including three performances at major events. These have provided valuable opportunities for the young men to grow and enhance their sense of self esteem through learning new skills and public performances. Music has been a successful method of engaging young men, and through the program they have also had the opportunity to learn about a lot of personal health issues similar to the topics discussed in Glam Girls.
Both Glam Girls and Kids Rock aim to connect young people to their community and create a sense of self efficiency in young people, which are important protective factors for a range of health issues. Both programs have also developed strong relationships with other stakeholders in the community over the past year, especially with the Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service, that has helped us deliver important health messages to the young people involved in the programs. The programs also continue to receive positive feedback from the wider community, including those involved in the youth sector and parents and families, as a positive alternative recreational activity for young people in Kununurra.
The Nylang Kids Media Project has also had a busy year with a group of 15 young people actively involved in all stages of making a film about teenage pregnancy, to be used as a local educational resource. We are in the process of picking a topic for our next film and looking for new avenues to show those films so we can reach a wider audience in 2010.
Why is this project needed?
By comparison to their
non-Indigenous counterparts, Indigenous children are almost three times
as likely to die before their first birthday, two-thirds will not
finish secondary school and on average they will die 20 years earlier
than the wider Australian population.
Education that builds young people’s
motivation and the ability to make positive life choices, is seen as a
key component in creating a better long term health outcome.
The future of the project:
The project will continue to engage new groups of young people in 2010, supporting them to become leaders in the community. There are opportunities to see the outcomes of this project at public performances around Kunnunurra and events such as NAIDOC week.
Glam
Girls doing a session on self esteem/self awareness
Report posted: 07 Jan 2010
This project cost will cover:
Workshop materials, staff and travel costs for several activities within the Kunnanurra Youth Health Program for 12 months. These activities include:
- Glam Girls; an educational and recreational group run for female youth focusing on issues of self esteem, positive decision making and health and well-being
- Nylang Kids Media Project; providing media training opportunities for young people to raise awareness of issues facing them in their communities.
- Engaging Young men: music and art workshops for young men in response to the lack of alternatives to sports programs
Why is this project needed?
By comparison to their non-Indigenous counterparts, Indigenous children are almost three times as likely to die before their first birthday, two-thirds will not finish secondary school and on average they will die 20 years earlier than the wider Australian population.
These are the challenges facing young people today in the East Kimberly region, many of whom do not have safe environments in which to live and learn essential life-skills and find meaningful work.
Without education, recreation or employment, many become both economically and socially marginalised, and engage in ‘at risk’ behaviours including substance abuse and violence. Many are at increased risk for negative health outcomes; sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancy, renal failure and diabetes.
Education that builds young people’s motivation and the ability to make positive life choices, is seen as a key component in creating a better long term health outcome.
Project aims / objectives
Save the Children’s Youth at Risk Program provides informal mentoring and training activities for young people aged 12-19 in Kununurra and surrounding communities.
The program focuses on three key elements to increase positive health outcomes for local youth through improved self esteem and motivation;
- increasing community engagement and social support,
- developing and delivering a program of youth led activities
- creating opportunities for skills development.
“If the Youth Development Program stopped today the young people of Kununurra wouldn’t have opportunities to be heard” – project participant