We are thrilled to announce that with the support of the Commonwealth and NSW Governments, we are supporting young people in the Bega Valley – with Sailing, Writing and Photography workshops.
The Children and Young People Wellbeing Recovery Initiative is funded through the NSW COVID-19 Economic Recovery Initiative and the co-funded Australian and NSW Governments’ Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
Winning Combination
We’ve created a unique and fun program to help our youths and young people acquire tools to build resilience.
Tough Time
It’s been a tough time for all of us, we hardly need reminding of the fires, Covid, and floods. For me, personally, I’ve always wanted to use my skills to help others, especially young people. I remember struggling through my teens with emotions rampaging around my body even when life was on a pretty even keel!
Writing Tools
I find when I write down my emotions and feelings it helps me understand them and even purge some intense feelings. Photography is a creative way of capturing your feelings and experiences and what better way to practice these skills than on a sailboat?
Combing Skills
I am an author and professional mariner, I have a lot of recreational experience as well, sailing around the world. I’ve combined these skills to create a fun workshop where I can share my knowledge and help others.
Program
This is what we’ll do:
We’ll start by learning some photography and writing tips. We’re not going to be learning about verbs and pronouns, we want sassy writing! Writing with attitude!
Then we’ll prepare for our sailing morning: looking at a nautical chart, lifejackets, a bit about safety and tying knots, and a bit of a nautical workshop.
The sailing day is greatly anticipated by everyone including me. I’ve teamed up with my friend Annette who has a gorgeous 48’ sailboat. Have a look here. We’ll have a few hours on Eden Bay allowing us to capture what we experience with photos and words.
Lastly, we’ll have a couple of sessions on capturing our experience by looking at the photos, maybe drawing what we felt, and some words too – as much or as little as we want.
The Aim
The aim is to use new skills in photography and writing to be able to capture our emotions and feelings and get them out of our heads and heart and onto paper. I know this method helps me cope and I hope I can pass this on to others to support them in building their arsenal of coping techniques.
The Result
We will be designing and producing an online magazine about the event. I hope to unleash some design skills in the participants, and showcase the workshops and sailing with our own creations.
We’ll be sharing photos along the way – be sure to follow and support the participants’ creations.
Thank you
A huge thank you to the Commonwealth and NSW governments for supporting this program. A shout-out goes out to Woolworths Bega Valley who are contributing to morning tea and the wonderful team at Twofold Bay Yacht Club where all this creativity, fun, and new friendships will unfold. Thanks also to NSW Transport for sending some goodies, as did Pantaenius Yacht Insurance – thank you all for supporting our young people learn new techniques in resilience.
For more about us, click here.
