28 June 2017
The ‘long reach’ of your support to outback children
Posted in Chaplaincy / School life
Australia’s great outback has been long romanticised through the works of some of our greatest writers.
From the image of the lone stockman facing off against the elements to the larrikin characters of the bush who whimsically made light of their adversity, we Australians have revelled in this caricature.
For most of us this image is a mirage, far removed from our reality.
For our countrymen and women living in remote communities, reality is tough. For the children and young people growing up in these parts, hope is not always apparent.
Thankfully, your support is helping make a change…
A few years ago we called on your support to raise much-needed funds to support the bush, and you’ll be pleased to know that the ‘bush fund’ is still helping to resource our friends in rural and remote Queensland.
It enabled SU QLD Children’s and Youth Programs (CAYP) Delivery Manager, Steve Forward, to deliver A2B Life Changing Groups training to Youth Leaders at the Longreach Baptist Church. It also helped Longreach State High lay the foundations for a community mentoring program.
Longreach State High School principal, Brendan Krueger, reached out to the school’s chaplain, Kerry, to help source for a suitable program. After a fruitless search both locally and regionally, Kerry contacted SU QLD.
It’s a move the school’s principal is very pleased with.
“I knew SU had the experience and expertise in this field. So I was really grateful to have Steve and his team come and help with training our staff,” he says.
For Brendan, the mentoring program is an opportunity to connect his students with positive role models in the community to help inspire them and make a tangible difference in their lives.
But before that could happen, he needed to equip his staff with the tools they needed to roll out the program.
Thanks to your support and the SU QLD CAYP team, Brendan believes his staff are ready to launch this great initiative.
“The training was excellent and was run really well. The staff who were trained are really happy with the course, and they feel very confident in being able to implement a mentoring program here.
“Six to 12 months down the track I’m hoping we’ve got up to a dozen mentors that are meeting regularly with the kids and just giving them guidance, and being that positive role model they need to navigate through the teenage years,” he says.
Thank you for supporting children in outback schools. We could not do this without your help.
Visit suqld.org.au/donate and help reach more children and young people in need of mentoring, support and hope.
Thanks for highlighting the issues of kids in the Outback all over the country. I do not live far from one of our main cities, but I see some the downsides as well as the benefits of living in a small country town makes to kids, let alone living farther out in our enormous country! I mean, the difficulty for those families who don’t have the ability or inclination to properly mentor their kids is huge, even here. Therefore, I really appreciate our school chaplain for her unique Christian view into the needs of the school kids and their families, and her desire to stand alongside to support, encourage and to pray for them. There are so many needs which can seem overwhelming to the chaplain and the teachers, who are on the frontline, which amounts to a huge need in the days we are living in! Prayer for our teachers and chaplains are equal to our need to pray for our government and politicians in the times we are living in.