Meeting Held Thursday November 10Th

RISKY BUSINESS

Minutes

Meeting held Thursday November 10th

Belmont High School

Attendance:

Greg Hansen (BATForce), Bree Moyes (Grovedale College), Adam Bond (Belmont High School), Peter Brown (BATForce Exec.), Anna Burke (D.H.S.), Leigh Bartlett (BATForce), Julie Arnall (Headspace Barwon), Carly Stafford (Highton Primary School), Jess Boccia (C.A.S.A.), Cathy McHenry (Headspace Barwon).

Presentations

Jess Boccia from Barwon CASA counselling services delivered a presentation about the Sexual Assault Prevention Program for Secondary Schools. The program has been piloted at North Geelong Secondary College. The aim is to form a partnership with the school and CASA to develop a whole school approach to addressing sexual assault.The objectives of the model are to reduce the incidence of sexual assault in school communities and to enhance the capacity of schools to respond to sexual assault. CASA are keen to run it again in Geelong schools and people who want further information can contact Jess at CASA on 5222 4318. For a schools perspective on the program Paul Dawson, the V.P. at North Geelong, is happy to take calls from schools who may be interested.

Adam Bond the student wellbeing coordinator from Belmont High School talked about the FLIP program that operates for year 7 and 8 boys at Belmont. The FLIP program consists of 3 classroom sessions over 3 weeks followed by 4 bike excursions over a further 4 weeks. Each of these bike sessions increase in difficulty and length slightly each week. After the 4 weeks of riding an overnight camp is held at BHS Camp site. Day one includes further activities and games at Apollo Bay and Tanbryn as well as a small walk through the state forest. While day 2 is dedicated to cross country riding through the established tracks in the State Forest. Each program runs for the duration of a school term with the most preferable outcome to facilitate 4 per year. The classroom component focuses on teamwork, leadership, communication and building self esteem within the classroom setting. The outdoor component focuses on the ability of the participants to follow instructions, assisting and encouraging others, overcoming challenges and providing a sense of achievement. Schools interested in further information about the program can ring Adam at the school on 5243 5355

General Business

Leigh from BATForce talked about the various “Cyber Safety” workshops she had been running with parents and students from local schools. The outcomes of the discussion from the group were that the workshops need a parent component to supplement what is being done with the young people. It also needs, most importantly, to go hand in hand with a healthy relationships or social competencies program. Young people who understand what a healthy relationship is and have that positive behavior modeled at home are less likely to be involved in inappropriate use of technology.

BATForce and S.F.Y.S. Report/Update

Greg reported that the Expressions of Interest for 2011 had closed and the L.A.G. was meeting next Wednesday to allocate the funding for 2012.

Any queries about any aspect of the meeting please contact me at: