HUME WEEK 3 TERM 4 2022

Hi everyone!

This has been a very exciting and adventure filled beginning to our term here at Operation Newstart!

We began with Wednesday the 19th of October where we started our day at Roxburgh Youth Centre. We soon began to grow our group dynamics with some fun games and activities. This can be one of the most exciting and daunting parts of the program, as traces of nerves and anxiety take hold. However, the group was quick to warm up to one another and faced the group activities with enthusiasm. We then went over the group rules and what values look like and mean. This in turn built our own group values, called the group codes of conduct that we’ll be referring to for the rest of the term. We then went through some self-evaluations and explained the next part of our day, boxing. We met with our famous boxing coach Sal, a professional firefighter and part boxing trainer/coach who helps all our groups here at Operation Newstart Northern. Sal explained his values of attitude and self-regulation, which was utilised throughout our session. Sal helped with ending the day with a note to continuing with a positive mindset and knowing we can all change our feelings and actions with positive thoughts.

GROUP VALUES

1. RESPECT

2. LOYALTY

3. HONESTY

4. KINDNESS

5. CONFIDENCE/BRAVERY

On Thursday the 20th we collected ourselves and headed off to visit Sherbrooke Forest. This peaceful area was used for a reflection on our newly formed values, future hiking activities and to integrate leadership opportunities into the group dynamic. Using this beautiful space we touched on the many aspects of leadership and navigation, and also getting our first group picture. Once we all piled into the van we began our drive to Trees Adventure to do our high ropes course. All of the young people faced this challenge head on and showed great levels of both enthusiasm and encouragement to their fellow teammates. Once done we thanked the company’s workers for our wonderful day and for letting us take part in the ropes course. All of the young people should be proud of their efforts on this day, as we all were able to achieve something with our team's support behind us!

On Friday the 21st we began our day at Collingwood Alternative School (CAS), starting with understanding and identifying our own character strengths, continuing on in our journals and creating our own school goals for this term. Though we touched on lots of information all of the young people maintained focus and thoroughly enjoyed their short breaks throughout the day. That afternoon we then began a landscaping exercise at Fairfield Melbourne Polytechnic where we put our hands to the ground and worked on our own pavements. Once done we thanked Ash, our landscaping teacher, for our wonderful day and for letting us take part in this demonstration. This day focused greatly on looking into the future and seeing what we all wanted to individually achieve, although still having plenty of banter along the way.

It was a fantastic week already, I’m excited to see what the other 6 hold for us all :-)

!NOW FOR OUR STUDENT WEEKLY REVIEW, FEATURING DEEN!

HOW WAS THE FIRST DAY? WHERE YOU NERVOUS OR EXCITED?WERE YOU BECOMING COMFORTABLE WITH THE GROUP?

"Nah it was alright, I felt excited and was comfortable with the group"

WHAT WAS A CHALLENGE THIS WEEK? HOW DID YOU OVER COME THIS?

"Tree surfing. Jumping I just went for it. Faced my fears"

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE/MEMORABLE MOMENT OF THE WEEK?

"Tree surfing, I did the splits in one of the obstacles"

WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE COMING WEEKS?

"Excited for the final camp, RUBICON camp"