Greater Dandenong Leader
Strong New Futures
We recently launched our inaugural Strong New Futures program. This program is designed for young people from a newly arrived and refugee background. It brings together a Journey Program to encourage teambuilding and cohesion and an in-school session where students explore their future educational and employment pathways.
I’m Emily. I’m a 3rd year University Pathways Program (UPP) student in Year 12, so I was the first group who participated in the three-year UPP. I live in Hillside which is about 40 minutes away from Malmsbury Camp.
Horsemanship. I don’t get to spend much time around horses normally and I love seeing the new campers have a go, challenge themselves and do something new. They really enjoy it and it’s a pleasure to see the look on their faces!
I really care about refugee rights as I love working with young people, especially those from refugee backgrounds. In my spare time I volunteer, teaching Grades 1-8 who are behind at school with literacy and numeracy. They’re mostly Karen, from the Thai-Burma border. I’ve been doing it for about a year now as a friend in Werribee set up the program.
When we did the cooking elective we were making sushi (yum!) The campers got their hands so sticky with rice they accidently (I think) wiped it all over their faces. In the end, they actually got more on their faces than they did on the seaweed!
Invigorating 🙂
Summer Holiday Campers consume approximately 360 Zooper Doopers per week at our Malmsbury Camp. Wow….that’s a lot of icey poles guys! Luckily our amazing chef Nicole keeps the freezers well stocked 🙂
On average, a Holiday Camper at City Camp will walk over 25,000 steps per day during the 5-day program. That’s a lot of exercise – no wonder there’s so many sleepy heads at the end of the day!
Nelly and Firelight are the mascots of Malmsbury Summer Camp. Can you guess what animals they are?
The campers have approximately 1 in 1300 chance of getting on TV at the Big Bash
The crew up at Malmsbury have used approximately 80m of calico so far in the design of team flags which they produce for team activities. A great way to get to know each other, bond and work up some healthy (and friendly) competitive vibes!
If the snow’s good, you’ll find me in the hills, skiing or boarding. If the snow’s not good, you’ll find me in the hills, walking and just being out there. If there’s no snow at all, you’ll find me in the hills, smashing out k’s on the mountain bike or running trails with my dogs, Digger and Nugget. I also place great value on spending weekends with friends and family.
By trying a range of occupations and being open to opportunities. I have been a corporate mailroom worker, credit clerk, telephone operator for a taxi company, factory worker, administrator of a theatre company, bike courier, bartender, ski guide, raft guide, expedition leader, personal trainer, outdoor educator and now program manager. Every role has held worth. I’ve carried valuable lessons from each to the next and what I’ve learnt along the way have been the milestones of my journey. I continue to learn.
Daniel has been a life-long Western Bulldogs fan
Every role has held worth. I’ve carried valuable lessons from each to the next and what I’ve learnt along the way have been the milestones of my journey. I continue to learn.
Day to day I am surrounded by amazing people. The staff team that we have at Malmsbury is outstanding. They are all very passionate about providing the best possible experience for all of the campers that visit. Our campers are diverse in background but share a common gratitude for everything they experience here. I am privileged to oversee all of the great outcomes between staff and campers. It’s rewarding to live and work in this environment.
The smile on campers’ faces as they leave. This comes as a result of the hard work that we all put in to make sure that their time at Malmsbury camp is a great experience. A smile and a thank you is pretty much all the affirmation you need!
I have worked in fifteen different countries.
Daniel leading a World Challenge Expedition to Mt Everest Base Camp, Himalayas
Be outdoors. Experience it. Understand it. Value it.
Be outdoors. Experience it. Understand it. Value it.
Geelong Indy
Journey Program
Young disadvantaged people from refugee backgrounds are getting their first taste of the Australian bush through a three-day trekking expedition in the Goldfields and Kooyoora State Park in central Victoria, near Bendigo.
The Journey program, run by Doxa – a Victorian not-for-profit operating out of Malmsbury – aims to build teamwork skills and personal skills such as confidence, a sense of belonging and connectedness which they take with them back into the community.
Jade was on stage for the first TED talk of the day which was a bold programming choice and set the tone for the “Adventurous Minds” conference. She spoke confidently and passionately about issues facing young women, how to conquer fear, push possibilities and exceed expectations. The talk resonated with me as facing fear, challenging the status quo and pushing the boundaries of experience are all things I personally really value in life. Jade was one of the most powerful speakers of the day; what a fantastic role model for young people, particularly young women. At Doxa we support young people in achieving personal greatness, so let’s get inspired by Jade and continue to back our young people, our young women and encourage them to be bold, brave and brilliant every day.
– Belinda Rowse, Public Relations Officer
Lets commit to take one step forward in our thinking and our expectations as to what young women can achieve…We must have courage. We must be prepared and willing to fail.
Jules Allen delivered the TEDx talk which resonated with me the most. Jules is a leading youth advocate and foster carer for 32 children over the years. Jules spoke from the heart about the change that needs to occur in the way we approach how we cope with the hardships and cruel blows life deals us. Her powerful speech addressed the shortcomings of simply focusing on building resilience and proposed the key ingredient missing when assisting people through these challenges was acceptance. When grief is unshakable and people found it difficult to move forward in life, we all need to be more accepting of the curve balls in life and to move forward because of them, not despite them. Her words will hopefully equip me for the inevitable tough moments in life which challenge us to the core.
– Pip Macdonald, Cadetship Lead
In society we are taught there are them and us. The ones you’re encouraged not to play with, working in those jobs, going to those schools. We judge. Challenge that judgement. There is no them and us, only us.
Dr Agustin Chevez took a simple, boring question “how many people can fit in an office?” and brought it to life. I couldn’t believe that such a boring subject could become something so full of wonder. His creative approach to a simple idea brings problem solving to a whole new level – and I certainly hope I can apply this to my work in turn.
– Dan Gibney, Brand & Communications Coordinator
The number of people that fit inside a building might be as uninspiring as 42, but the reason why I think this adventure is so exciting, is because the path to finding that number is the same path to understand what makes us us.
Our friends at The Big Issue are in party mode for the organisation’s 20 year anniversary. So we thought it was time we shared the story of our relationship with The Big Issue Classroom, and the ways we work together with young people in the community.
Well, we both work with people from challenging life circumstances and we’re both all for creating positive change for people and the community. But it runs deeper than that – empowerment and connection are at the heart of both organisations’ work, as we discovered when we went to a Big Issue Classroom session at the Centre of Adult Education with a group of young people on City Camp from Warburton Primary School last week.
The Big Issue Classroom – guest speaker with Danya Sterling
What’s it all about? The Big Issue Classroom educates young people about homelessness, disadvantage and the challenges facing society. The workshops include activities, talks and insights from a guest speaker, who shares their first-hand experience with these issues. The speakers’ stories help break down stereotypes and promote greater understanding among the student groups according to Danya Sterling, Manager of Education Enterprises at The Big Issue.
In the classroom, things like marginalisation, the importance of work and community were addressed along with exploring the stereotypes, preconceptions and misconceptions associated with homelessness.
A central exercise of the Big Issue Classroom was building a tower block from blocks labelled with essential elements required for a happy life – things like education, family, employment, home. In doing this, young people soon realised the importance of these elements and the detrimental effects of removing one of these blocks, metaphorically and literally.
These are two powerful words. And two powerful concepts that run through the core values of both Doxa and The Big Issue Classroom.
Connecting to the community and empowering individuals to facilitate change in their own lives are both hugely important. We see it at Doxa all the time across our programs portfolios of positive life experiences, education opportunities and employment pathways. Much of the focus of our work is empowering young people who are experiencing challenging life circumstances, supporting them and providing them with the opportunity to develop personal and professional skills to get them into meaningful employment.
As part of the Big Issue Classroom we also met Shane, who experienced a long period of homelessness after his father passed away ten years ago, sending him into a spiral of disillusionment, despair and isolation. By hearing his story first hand, the young people from Warburton Primary were able to connect with the ideas and link the concepts explored so far.
Danya elaborates on this, explaining that by sharing their own stories of making positive changes in their lives, the guest speakers show student groups what is possible. She adds that it’s important for young people to recognise the value of a support network and realise it’s OK to ask for help when they need it.
Once again, this is a key concept for us at Doxa – our programs are aimed at inspiring and creating positive change first in individual’s life and then facilitating a cascading effect across the wider community.
We spoke to two young people from Warburton Primary School about their thoughts and how they would like to help address homelessness in their communities. As they found, by attending a Doxa City Camp and participating in the Big Issue Classroom experience, they gained a better perspective on social issues, community and wellbeing.
Jasmine from Warburton Primary School on a Doxa City Camp
I learned that almost half of homeless people are women and 1 in 5 are primary school age or younger. I feel that we should do a lot more to help. I feel sad whenever I pass homeless people as I wish they had a home. Everyone deserves that.
Dylan from Warburton Primary School on a Doxa City Camp
I learned that there are 105,000 people homeless in Australia every night and just how important it is to stay happy. I wish the homeless weren’t in that position. I wish they had better lives. The Big Issue Classroom has given me a lot of perspective on homeless people. If I could help, I would give them money, food, water but most importantly a home.
The Big Issue are celebrating their 20 year anniversary this year! Find out more about that here.
And finally – huge thanks to Nicole and Danya at the Big Issue and staff and students at Warburton Primary School.
We recently ran a Journey Program with a fantastic group of newly arrived / migrant young people from the Western English Language School, many of whom are from a refugee background.
Imagine you are newly arrived to Australia. You’ve undergone displacement from your homeland, tremendous upheaval, possible bereavement and varying degrees of trauma in the process. You arrive in a new country, you don’t speak much English and you’ve got new social norms and a new environment to navigate. What would help you make you feel like you belong?
Summitting Mt Koorooya
Our Journey Program aims to foster these powerful skills in order to empower the participants and foster social cohesion and inclusion. This is achieved through:
What’s more, Journey Program provides a powerful shared experience which brings young people together. It gives them a chance to shine where perhaps the academic setting would not. And it is something that they can take with them forever.
So what are we talking about here? Well, through participating in the Journey Program, young people come out with:
The feedback from the Western English Language School has been super positive. The participants are apparently still talking about it, weeks after the trip!
“We all loved the program and everyone would love to go again!”
This program for newly arrived and refugee young people would not have been possible without the generosity of Gandel Philanthropy.
And of course all the awesome young people and teachers from the Western English Language School – Mr Zac, Mr Marko and Mr Sujeevan.
First of all they caught an old fashioned steam train from Castlemaine to Maldon, both former gold mining towns.
In Maldon they explored Carmen’s tunnel which was lit by a series of candles. The tunnel is 570m long and took two years to be dug out! Despite this process the tunnel only produced $300 worth of gold (roughly $9,600 today).
Then they took part in their own gold rush bonanza which was a series of short games such as gold panning and mine filing.
Big thanks to John Ellis of the Chewton Domain Society who donated a replica of an old diggers’ flag from the 1851 Monster Meeting – a huge protest that took place in the local area many years ago.
Photo gallery below. Photos by Doxa volunteer JD (Jaydan Knowles)
International basketball player Chris Anstey came out of retirement for one morning only as part of a volunteer project with young Victorians at the award-winning Doxa’s Malmsbury camp.
The 7ft tall b-ball hot shot ran a one-off sports clinic at the Doxa camp in Malmsbury, teaching a group of grade 5-6 students from right across Victoria the basics of the game and giving them tips and tactics to become future basketball greats.
The children attending the Doxa Holiday camp come from a range of challenging life circumstances and many will have never visited rural Victoria before. Many lack positive role models within their lives.
The aim of the sports clinic was to give the children an insight into the importance of teamwork and develop their resilience and confidence, both on and off the pitch.
Chris Anstey says: “Young people are so often asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?” When you’re 10 years old the answer will be different from when you’re 15 or even 20 years but the secret to success, in my opinion, is to enjoy what you do, take every opportunity and try anything once. Every young person deserves the opportunity to dream big and enjoyed sharing my basketball journey with the young people at the Doxa Summer Camp and hopefully inspiring some future players along the way!”
Daniel Findley, Doxa Chief Executive Officer, Doxa says: “The Doxa summer camp at Malmsbury is held each year in the first weeks of January and is aimed at giving over 200 young people the chance to participate in team building activities, adventure activities, sports and outdoor pursuits. Whilst gaining new skills is certainly a part of the program, fun is also a big focus and the program offers access to experiences that peers receive.”
For any media enquiries, please contact Belinda Rowse (details below). A downloadable .pdf can also be obtained by clicking the button below.
Belinda Rowse
03 9046 8200
browse@doxa.org.au
[eventbutton text=’Media Statement’ link=’https://dev.doxa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Doxa_Media-statement_Slam-dunk-Bball-hotshot-hosts-kids-camp_JAN-2016_01.pdf’]
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