GOOLUM Goolum Aboriginal Co-operative will revisit a tried and tested model to help at risk and disengaged Wimmera students.
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The Horsham-based organisation will run a Deadly Bike Project, where indigenous students will work as a team to build bikes and customise them.
The Victorian Department of Justice and Regulation’s Koori Justice Unit and Frontline Youth Initiative Fund has given the organisation $330,000 for three years for the program.
The project will be modelled on the 2011-12 Deadly Ute Project, where students customised a ute and decorated it with Koori artwork.
The project was nominated for a national award.
Goolum Goolum health promotion co-ordinator Dean O’Loughlin said the bike project aimed to give students at risk of becoming criminals a sense of purpose.
“It is a justice diversion program that will up-skill students in an applied learning scenario,” he said.
“What we found with the Deadly Ute Project is that kids with limited communication skills and low self-esteem really thrived. They had a sense of pride and they were happy to talk about the project with people.”
Mr O’Loughlin said the bike project had a community service element, where students would restore old bikes and present them to people in need.
“As part of their work, students will also gain job-ready certificates that will go towards their Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning, including Certificate Two in Business and Certificate Two in Creative Industries – Multimedia,” he said.
Mr O’Loughlin said the organisation would call on schools, training organisations, and people with relevant skills to work with students on the project.
He said the project would be filmed, and organisers hoped it could feature on SBS channel National Indigenous Television.
“We are also hoping to showcase the bikes through events like Kannamaroo,” he said.
Mr O’Loughlin said Goolum Goolum would work on project preparations for the rest of the year, with the aim of starting the project in term one, 2016.
“We are hoping we will get two lots of students through – in 2016 and 2017 – with the funding we have,” he said.
