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Building Resilience Through Physical Fitness
A physical fitness program focusing on building mental and physical stability, is providing mentoring and peer support to young people in the Clarence Valley.
Clarence Valley Council is partnering with The Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) to work with Local Drug Action Teams (LDAT) to develop and deliver evidencebased activities at a community level. Clarence Valley’s LDAT, is a made up of a group of organisations, including NSW Police Force, New School of Arts, Changing Lanes, Momentum Collective, Headspace and Social Futures, who have formed a collaboration to address alcohol and other drug issues in the valley. Recent consultation with community leaders, police and service providers identified an ongoing local issue where a cohort of young people were frequently engaging in risky behaviour when influenced by alcohol and cannabis in the lower river area. The LDAT successfully applied for grant funding from the ADF to fund a fitness program. Up to 12 young people aged between 14 and 17 years have been consistently attending the ten-week program which provides information from partner organisations to increase their knowledge around the effects of alcohol and drug use. Different topics are discussed each week with relevant partner support services attending sessions to provide information. Senior Constable Jess Stamper (Coffs Clarence LAC, Youth Officer) has advised that she is impressed with the attitude and effort displayed by the participants. “I believe in the importance of building resilience, both physical and mental in young people and hope this will increase their ability to understand stress and to use healthy lifestyle strategies to better manage, whether that’s at school or in the community with peers and friends,” Snr Constable Stamper said.
“Coming to the high intensity interval training gets me up and active, I have a good time working out and catching up with everyone after the workout. Afterwards I feel better about myself, and I’m motivated to get through the rest of the week,” one of the participants said. Another young person participating in the sessions said that the program, “Keeps me fit for footy season and keeps me busy during the week”. Engaging young people in healthy lifestyle activities can have both physical and mental health benefits as one of the young people identified, “We really have a good workout, like proper sweat and pain and then have a laugh about it afterwards, yeah, its good”. Another young person has decided to give up vaping because of the program and was able to have meaningful discussions with the mentors and this supported their decision to quit.
Images above: LDAT CrossFit program in action. Opp. page: Allira enjoys an activity with Clarence youth at Live’ n Loud
