By Olivia Condous
Melton youth will receive further support to engage with their local community through new government funding.
VicHealth announced the community group program partners who will receive a share of $5 million as part of The Big Connect program, go towards supporting the wellbeing of Victorian young people.
The Edmund Rice Community and Refugee Services (ERCRS) in Truganina is one of the 27 partners to receive the funding.
The ERCRS run a range of services in the western suburbs predominantly for residents from refugee, migrant and disadvantaged backgrounds.
The organisation will use the funding to bolster the We Connect mentoring program, designed to re-engage children aged 13 to 16 with their community to reduce youth disengagement in the Brimbank-Melton area.
ERCRS team leader and We Connect program supervisor Georgia Weymouth Large said the program also supported youth to empower themselves to become young leaders.
“Young people, particularly post-COVID, are feeling a sense of disengagement within their communities and with their peers,” she said.
“The aim of this mentoring program is really just to reestablish those connections that they may have lost during that time, with themselves, their peers, their local communities and families.”
The funding for ERCRS will go towards community and social youth engagement, employment pathways, as well as re-engaging youth back in school after a difficult period of remote learning during the pandemic.
The program will also seek feedback from young people within the community to learn what goals and outcomes they would like to see.
Ms Weymouth Large said the organisation was really excited to receive the funding and be able to expand the We Connect mentoring program.
“That’s a big thing for us, really ensuring that we’re getting the voice of the young people into the program, what they think would work best for them,” she said.
“To support young people in the community and their families, that’s really important to us.”
