YARRA TERM 3 WEEK 4 2022

Hello everyone! What a week we had!

We started this week on Wednesday the 3rd of August. Joining the crew down at the station, we headed to Richmond recreation centre where we would spend our first gym session. We utilise these spaces due to their locality and accessibility for our students to continue after the program. We then spent an hour understanding the available machines and how to create a personal program, which will be used later on in the term. These gym sessions aid in finding healthy and accessible hobbies or activities for young people to access. We then ventured off to Headspace where we had an introduction to their services and a talk about a variety of topics, including the fight and flight response and sleep. This session's topics were priorly chosen by the students themselves, and although they were shy about answering questions and bantering with the friendly team they continued to stay present in the room. Overall this day was filled with a lot of information on ways to reach out for help, who is available and what methods are healthy for releasing stress, e.g. going to a work out :-).

On Thursday we collected back at the station but for a very different kind of day… CAMP! Yes only week 2 of the program and we already introduced an overnight stay! The students, though nervous, came along prepared and ready for the trip ahead and were all extremely efficient in packing up the bus in preparation to head off to Wesburn. Though it was an hour's drive from Collingwood, the crew bantered along the ride (Phones being taken by staff till drop off on friday). When we arrived everyone spread their legs exploring the space and steadily locating their cabins before coming together to choose their first destination for the camp, a hiking location. Unanimously the crew decided upon the Mount Donna Buang path. This trek, though beautiful, was very steep, leaving our students to provide support to one another and distracting those finding difficulty climbing the beast of a hill. This hike helped not only to grow our senses and ability to support one another, but also to understand instructions with navigation and allowing leadership opportunities as we walked. When we had all successfully completed this exhausting path we headed back to the cabins. After an hour or so’s relaxation to unwind from the hike the crew was keen on coming together to cook, helping one another and making sure it was perfect before plating. They then began to fill out some of their journals about their day hike and what difficulties were present for them. Once done we all enjoyed some dessert before using the camp's recreation space, which allowed us to wind down for the night before getting to bed.

Friday was an interesting one. Although all woke up and got dressed, enjoying some egg and bacon rolls, most of the students were concerned about our next activity, caving. This though seemingly dangerous, was completely safe with our experienced staff and completely mapped out caving systems. Though some were still stressed about the nearing caving session we got everyone to start packing up and grabbing gear to start the activity. We got everyone into a wide space at the beginning of our caving and to our very happy surprise all the students eventually felt safe and secure enough to give the caves a shot. Now caving requires many skills, but nothing more than communication and teamwork. There were times where we aided one another in accessing pathways and made sure everyone was comfortable and able bodied to continue. This activity helped to solidify our group's bond as we aim to create safe spaces where we all are able to achieve. After the finale of the caving we quickly changed and began our route back to Collingwood station where we handed back phones before sending them off.

!NOW FOR OUR WEEKLY STUDENT REVIEW!

!THIS WEEK IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY JONAH!

What was the challenging part about The Hike day for you? How did you overcome this challenge?

“I THOUGHT I WOULD BE COVERED IN SPIDERS, I DON’T HATE THEM BUT JUST DON’T WANT THEM ON ME. I JUST KEPT WALKING THROUGH”

What were you feeling when we entered the caves? Did your feelings in the cave change at all or did you feel the same all the way? Was there a challenging aspect to caving for you? What helped you get over this?

“I WAS SCARED AT FIRST. I FELT MORE COMFORTABLE IN THE CAVES ONCE WE STARTED. THE CLIFF AND THE WATER WAS A CHALLENGE. WHEN I WOKE UP I DIDN’T WANT TO GO, BUT THEN I DID IT ANYWAY BECAUSE I THOUGHT WHEN WOULD I EVER BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE THIS AGAIN FOR FREE”

What did the leaders do well in this camp? or what do you think you did well as a leader in this camp?

“WAITING FOR PEOPLE AND SUPPORTING THEM.”

What would you do next time you went caving or hiking? What would you do to help someone else going through it for the first time?

“I WOULD THINK BACK TO THIS TRIP. I WOULD SUPPORT THEM AND ASK THEM HOW THEIR DOING EVERY 5 MINUTES."