A risky move to Ballarat

CHILDREN’S risk-focused fitness program Risky Kids is looking to expand into Ballarat.

With locations in Geelong and Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, founder and director Richard Williams is reaching out for potential staff to help establish the local team.

Risky Kids aims to teach children emotional resilience as well as how to understand failure and risk through parkour, freerunnning and ninja.

“We deliver it in a way that kids will understand which is through movement, games and fun challenges,” Mr Williams said.

“We also help educate parents, families and communities on how important risk taking is as part of that solution.”

The Risky Kids program looks to put down its roots in Ballarat as the first step in its expansion into regional Victoria, with Mr Williams calling it “the right place” to begin.

“Ballarat’s one of the biggest regional cities in Australia so if we want to work with families who understand what we’re trying to do, it’s one of the best places for us to go.”

Founded in 2018, Mr Williams said the idea for the program began as a combined result of his backgrounds both in psychology and sociology and as a stunt actor.

In wanting to create a kid’s program, his research led him down a rabbit hole of children’s psychology and the concepts behind risky play.

“It’s more important for us to let the kids go out and get those bumps and bruises and it’s more harmful for us to prevent it.”

Risky Kids is also working with Box Hill Institute and Swinburne University of Technology to further research the psychology behind the program’s methods.

The program teaches over 1000 children across its five facilities and Mr Williams said he hopes to continue increasing that number across Western Victoria.

“When it comes to regional, we’ve found that the communities are a lot more receptive to the idea of risk. It’s something that’s appreciated and understood a lot more,” he said.

Mr Williams is seeking to have the Ballarat branch of Risky Kids set up as early as March or April.