Leading Senior Constable Darren Ferluga said police and the community teamed up with the charity, which takes teenagers on an eight-day trek in the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. 

Sen Con Ferluga runs the West Wimmera Operation Flinders branch and said the experience gave teenagers a chance to reflect on issues in their lives as well as build respect and self esteem. 

Sen Con Ferluga has been involved in the program since 2011 and said he had seen lasting transformations in participants. 

“In the past five or six years it’s been running out here, we’ve seen massive changes,” Sen Con Ferluga said. 

“We’ve had people go on it who were ready to end their schooling and have afterwards gone on to finish year 12 and take up tertiary study.”

Edenhope’s Senior Constable Clyde Lourensz and Sen Con Lorensz’s son Caleb, of Grampians Community Health, joined Sen Con Ferluga on the trek as counsellors. 

Together with three Edenhope teenagers, two from Horsham and a team from Adelaide, they abseiled, hiked, built bridges and relationships. 

Wimmera Superintendent Paul Margetts also visited the program. 

Sen Con Ferluga said the trek not only transformed the children, but also allowed them to see the people behind the police uniform. 

“We’ve had teens who are very anti-police come along,” he said. 

“By day three they see I’m just a big kid like them. 

“They see us as humans and we treat them as decent people.

“We’re not there to come down hard or be officers, we’re there to mentor and guide them.”

Sen Const Ferluga fundraises the $9500 to run the program each year.

“Team leaders generally don’t have any contact outside of the program,” he said. 

“Here I get to see people on a daily or weekly basis, I get to see how they’re going. 

“One lad who was on my very first walk in 2011 I still see on a regular basis, we get on really well.”