Milestone funding for Headspace Geelong

BARWON Child Youth and Family has raised a record total of $162,540 for Headspace Geelong at the Rotary Club of Belmont’s 2019 Business Charity Luncheon the week before last.

Now in its third year, the money raised from the event will go towards Headspace Geelong and its “Social Inclusion Project”, an initiative focused on early intervention for complex, isolated and hard to engage young people.

The project has delivered 300 individual mentoring sessions and more than 60 community-based group sessions since late 2016.

Headspace Geelong operations manager Grant Gibson said mental health is the leading concern for young Aussies.

“The Social Inclusion Project complements our Headspace support services through a more outreachbased service approach,” he said.

“It allows young people to engage in a service where they feel comfortable and safe in discussing their mental health outside of a clinical environment, and this helps to get them back on track as well as strengthening their ability to manage their mental health in the future.”

About 330 people attended the luncheon at GHMBA Stadium which was supported by Swagman Tours, Morris Finance, Bendigo Bank, and the Geelong Football Club.

Paralympic gold medallist Dylan Alcott was a guest speaker at the luncheon, as well as Cats’ recruitment and list manager, Stephen Wells.

A touching video created by three of the participants of the Social Inclusion Project was also aired at the event.

BCYF CEO Sandy Morrison said the introduction of the Social Inclusion Project had cultivated “meaningful outcomes” for young people in Geelong.

The Rotary Club of Belmont’s 2019 Business Charity Luncheon has raised over $300,000 since the event began in 2017.