$1.1m for new Cloncurry youth program
CLONCURRY’S MultiSkill Centre has been allocated $1,163,654 under the Federal Government’s Safer Communities Fund Round Six to implement a new program that will assist young people from 12-24 to be actively involved in the community.
The Redi2Change project will target youth in Mount Isa and Cloncurry who have become disengaged with mainstream education and employment or require developmental support and aims to divert youth from anti-social behaviours and crime.
Paul Bashford, Director of the MultiSkill Centre, said the charity is grateful to be working with funding provided by the Safer Communities Fund to create the new Redi2Change program.
“Don’t do nothing! is the premiss of the program,” he said.
“The aim will be to assist young people to be involved in educational activities with a focus on being employable and giving back to the community. The funding will be used to provide individual support to participants of the program and get them back to school, into vocational education, and non-accredited training.
“Additionally, it will help explore healthy recreational options. We will work closely with other existing organisations and programs to avoid duplication and increase the variety of offering for young people.
Our local community, existing community services organisations and program participants in both Mt Isa and Cloncurry will gain value from Redi2Change over a two-year period.
“MultiSkill Centre has a proven track record of providing engaging programs with an educational focus, a key component being their Cloncurry based centre."
MultiSkill Centre is a Cloncurry based charity that services Mount Isa and realises the importance of not replicating existing programs or doing the same thing that other organisations are already doing.
“Kennedy MP, Bob Katter, recently visited the MultiSkill Centre in Cloncurry and was impressed by the broad range of initiatives being undertaken including the RedDoor Café which enables hospitality training for young people, manufacturing, recycling, and even reprocessing used cooking oil into diesel.
“This is a good service for the whole of the community, not just our young people,” Mr Katter said.
“Making things locally including essential services like diesel is where we need to be going. I am extremely passionate about fuel security and making things in Australia.
“It is good to see Paul and his team not just talking about a good idea but are implementing it. They’ve got serious runs on the board.”
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