By TOM HAYES
MOUNTAINTRACK YOUTH recently had its first birthday, marking the milestone with celebrations at Jumbuk Park on Sunday, December 1.
The service provides long-term support for young people who have experienced a rough childhood, helping kids to establish a real sense of connection, through relationships, education, and discovering their strengths.
MOUNTAINTRACK Chief Executive, Director, and Co-founder, David Butler and MOUNTAINTRACK Director and Co-founder, Laura Myer reflected on what they had achieved in the last 12 months.
Mr Butler mentioned that he was most proud of the four original members of MOUNTAINTRACK, those being Tyson Christopher, Cody Head, Jayden Rigby, and Alex Zitta.
“Just seeing the changes in their trajectory,” Mr Butler added.
Ms Myer said she was proud to see the kids working with one another.
“Watching the older ones with the younger ones, bringing them into the fold,” she said.
“They support each other. We’ve created a culture here that it’s a lovely environment, and they’re all happy and when people come into (MOUNTAINTRACK) they just don’t believe it.
“They’re just beautiful kids. They treat each other well and treat guests well. They want to be here, and they treat us with the utmost respect.”
The past year has seen MOUNTAINTRACK grow in many aspects, from kids they cater for to what is available for the kids to get up to. Not only did they exceed their initial expectations, but now they have new goals set for the future.
The format has changed, which now sees two sets of programs for two different types of kids.
“We sort of realised that there are so many young people in the (Latrobe) Valley that fit this category that aren’t going to school,” Mr Butler said.
“(We have) the long-term program, which was basically going to be day programs, just come up, but then have an education component.
“Then we realised we had this other cohort that probably don’t need to be here every week, but they want to come back – so we’ll run a course for them.
“Our next step now… is getting lots of good people out in the community… if they’re good with young people and they’ve got a skill, and they want to come up with a three-day course… so in the next year we need to start building that repertoire.”
Mr Butler and Ms Myer originally expected to get as many as 10 kids onboard, but after one year of the program they have already reached 15.
“Where the kids have gotten to has exceeded expectations. We didn’t expect them to be in such good places – all of them – and it’s just so pleasing to see,” Ms Myer said.
“And having taken to the place so well, and each other, it’s just blown me away.”
Earlier this year in September, MOUNTAINTRACK welcomed Darren Goulder to the team, who has helped launch some new ideas.
Mr Goulder used to work with youth at BackTrack in Armadale. Upon meeting Mr Butler, he decided to make the move for some more freedom.
Racing drag bikes, Mr Goulder had the opportunity to have some BackTrack participants in his pit crew. Now he is giving that same opportunity to MOUNTAINTRACK.
“It gives them a goal. Now they want to go to school, do this, do that,” Mr Goulder said.
MOUNTAINTRACK has created a system that makes kids tick their way through the course, encouraging them to get more steps done as efficiently as possible.
“It’s the same with the disaster recovery, they’ve got to learn their excavator, their chainsaws, first aid. It just gives them a whole new reason to do stuff,” Mr Goulder added.
He found it a seamless transition, with many of the kids excited to get started. He said about seven to eight students appear to be showing interest in being involved with the pit crew opportunity.
Mr Goulder and the MOUNTAINTRACK crew will be heading over to Calder Park for a street meet next February.
As part of this course, the kids are learning the mechanical basics as well as airbrushing, 3D printing, and printing merchandise and stickers.
Also during this process, the kids restored the Blue Ribbon van that was donated to them earlier in the year, giving it a fresh lick of paint and ripping out the inside to be fit for hauling the drag bike and gear.
One of the main goals for the next 12 months includes getting an educator on board, as these kids have missed out on a lot of school.
“We’ll try and get an educator on board. I’ve had discussions with Berry Street… now we are starting to establish our courses,” Mr Butler said.
Mr Butler mentioned that talks with Berry Street have extended to the point of having MOUNTAINTRACK students visit the school for a couple of days a week, and in return have Berry Street students at MOUNTAINTRACK to do workshop classes in the meantime – that way both sets of students are always learning something.
To celebrate the first birthday of MOUNTAINTRACK, kids, staff, donors, the community, and even the neighbours were invited, making up around 35 people in attendance to see what had been achieved in the past year.
“They did us so proud on the Sunday, they did the cooking for us, they took everyone around and told everyone what they do up here,” Ms Myer said.
“Another thing we’re proud of is that we’ve not lost anyone, they always come back no matter what they’re doing.
“The biggest thing was just making it about them and their achievements.”
Ms Myer added that MOUNTAINTRACK hopes to build its reputation so that potential employers can see the good stories coming from the program, trusting them to get at-risk youth fit for the workforce.
Mr Butler and Ms Myer agreed that the emotional security that MOUNTAINTRACK provides is what helps these kids thrive compared to what their lives used to be.
“And once you build that emotional security, that’s when you can do great things with them. You can learn with them and guide them,” Ms Myer added.
For anyone who might be interested in working or volunteering for MOUNTAINTRACK, contact David Butler at 0477 233 777.
