Eltham Term Week 4 2018

Wednesday kicked off how it always does with a gym session at Eltham Leisure centre. This week we focused on muscle groups and what we want to achieve from the gym. With help from Jordan we each identified three areas of fitness that we want to improve and what we like doing at the gym. From this information Jordan is going to create each of us our own personal program to work on in the following week. We finished the session by doing a range of cardio and strength based machines in the gym. After this we headed straight to Edendale farm to do some volunteer work with Jo. Jo has ben working at the farm for many years and is a close friend of the program. After we all ate together we split into two groups and got weeding and cleaning areas of the farm. With credit to the young people they all worked really well together and before we knew it we were finished and milking the goats. This activity was a special one as we often don't get the time or privilege to do this. From this we then fed the baby goats, thanked Jo and called it a day.

Thursday was a day filled with information as were were heading straight into our Drug and alcohol workshop with Candice from YSAS. YSAS is the Youth Support and Advocacy Services and offers a rang of support services for all young people who are in need. The session provided a lot of information on how drugs and alcohol effect the body and around safety on drug/alcohol use. After this we energised ourselves by having lunch in the park before heading to NMIT in Fairfeild to participate in our floristry TAFE tester. During our tester we worked with Mayharm who not only studied at NMIT as a mature aged student but has owned and managed her own florist. With her knowledge and guidance each student was able to pick up some skills and was able walk out with a buttonhole that was worthy of wearing.

Friday was a exciting and nerve racking day as we went caving at Benella caves. We picked up the students and headed straight to the cave. Once at the cave we suited up, went over our safety briefing and headed straight in. For most young people entering the cave is the scarcest part of the whole journey. it was lovely to see all the young people band together to support throughout the whole day. When we were in the cave many of our character strengths came into play as we focused on identifying these in each other. With special mention to the young people each of them showed great courage, resilience, leadership and zest during this day. After a few activities, a few run in with cave creatures and two run-throughs of the cave we walked through the rainforest back to the bus. We then got changed, debriefed and are we headed home feeling accomplished.