CENTRAL Highlands Water staff have donated to one of the region\u2019s Indigenous support services with proceeds from the recent Begonia Festival.<\/p>\n
The cash was raised through the sale of Choose Tap reusable bottles, with all funds going towards the utility\u2019s community partner The Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative.<\/p>\n
BADAC staff were presented with a cheque for nearly $15,000 to help run their youth engagement programs and CEO Karen Heap said the support is a welcome one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important to give them options to see other things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to have a positive impact instead of a negative one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be funding these sorts of programs for kids to get an experience of life and different things. A lot of these children wouldn\u2019t have had that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics study estimates 54 per cent of the 4300 people able to access BADAC\u2019s service are aged under 24 years old.<\/p>\n
BADAC\u2019s cultural and therapeutic team manager and CHW independent Aboriginal delegate Shu Brown said the youth programs are about connecting First Nations young people to their culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor kids to get out here like this it\u2019s so important for them to be out in country,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ll be doing dance practices tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the week we had our men\u2019s youth group go out and make spears, boomerangs, and clap sticks. More cultural activities like that would be fantastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard because we\u2019re pretty underfunded when it comes to children and youth services programs, and highly funded in programs like youth justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 40 kids currently attend BADAC\u2019s youth group meetings on Monday nights.<\/p>\n
BADAC was announced as CHW\u2019s community partner last year, and the latter\u2019s managing director Jeff Haydon said the donation is the largest they\u2019ve given to the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 65,000 people attend the Begonia Festival in record crowds which resulted in record sales of our bottles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBADAC makes a big difference to small organisations that do fantastic work supporting our local Aboriginals in our community especially with their youth programs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CENTRAL Highlands Water staff have donated to one of the region\u2019s Indigenous support services with proceeds from the recent Begonia Festival. The cash was raised through the sale of Choose Tap reusable bottles, with all funds going towards the utility\u2019s community partner The Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative. BADAC staff were presented with a cheque […]<\/p>\n