Page 23 - AYC Annual Report 2017 - 2018

Our work in Schools
Throughout the year, the following psycho-educational workshops were run within the Cumberland LGA and surrounds at
schools, community centres and at AYC:

• One mental health “R U OK Day” workshop (10 sessions).
• One series of healthy relationships workshop (6 sessions).
• One series of “a Healthy Self” mental health workshop (6 sessions).
• One series “Sporting Linx” mentoring and leadership workshop (6 sessions) .
• Two series of mental health and wellbeing workshops (5 sessions/series).
• Six series of “Connect Within” combination workshops (5 session each/series).
• Eight “Be Bold for Change” self- esteem and empowering females’ workshops.
• Four series of “Rock and Water” resilience workshops (5 sessions/series).
• Two full day workshops, “Lovebites”. (12 sessions)

Auburn Youth Centre had the unique privilege of developing and delivering over 120 evidence based
psycho-educational workshops to young people within the local Cumberland region. Feedback on our programs is
continuous, with each series of workshops evaluated by participants. This feedback, and anecdotal evidence, shapes our
programs for the future. Our most recent feedback indicated that labelling people, for example as angry or anxious and
putting them into groups to address this issue was counterproductive. It was also clear that young people wanted interactive,
fun activities that were about them as individuals and helped them to grow.
Accordingly, we have modified our programs, their titles and how we
promote them in the community. Our challenge is modifying the words that
others use when allocating people to the groups.

This year we have added three new workshops to our collection. Sporting
Linx workshop, delivered in partnership with STARTTS, uses sport as an
engagement tool to develop self esteem and leadership skills. “Women
empowerment, Be Bold for Change” focuses on concepts such as female
empowerment, self- esteem, confidence and healthy communication. This
was developed in response to schools concerns around female safety,
bullying and relationship issues. The workshops were implemented throughout four schools, on eight different occasions, and
reached over 150 young women. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from participants and schools.

Our third new program is “A healthy Self”. It is a program targeted towards understanding and strengthening young people’s
emotional intelligence and imotional health. It challenges unhelpful thinking styles and builds upon resiliency skills.

Our very successful “Connect Within” program is based on helping young people to understand and manage anger, anxiety,
stress and other emotions and connected behaviours. The program delivers core activities however allows schools to identify
key issues associated to the group. We then tailor activities to focus on individual needs. AYC is proud of the “Connect Within”
program, the level of engagement it creates and outcomes it produces. This year we delivered Connect Within in 6 schools to
extremely positive feedback.

Two of our biggest group work and skills building days were” RU OK” Day and our Lovebites program.

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