Mentors take Looma youth under their True Blue wings

Youth mentoring program True Blue Dreaming connected Kimberley youth with city mentors at a camp at the banks of Fitzroy River in July.

True Blue Dreaming aims to foster personal growth, social-and-economic enterprise commitment and environmental sustainability in young people aged 12 to 18 who are living in rural and remote Australian communities.

TBD have had an ongoing relationship with remote Aboriginal community Looma, 120km from Derby, since 2005 and support the town’s young people, with mentors.

The Looma program, funded by miner Rio Tinto, included three camps over a 12-month period.

Between the last two camps, at Broome in April and Looma in July, a number of young people from Looma community were matched with mentors from St George’s College at the University of WA.

There were 24 young people from Looma and 10 UWA students at each camp.

They began a mentoring relationship at the Broome camp, communicating by phone and email afterward, then consolidating the coaching at Looma last month.

The True Blue program uses mentoring in an effort to inspire young people toward social enterprise, environmental sustainability and commercial creativity within their communities by following a program of “story lines” in personal growth, health and wellbeing, environmental stewardship, and community and enterprise development.

Concepts of emotional intelligence, self-management, goal-setting and achievements were introduced in line with real-life experiences of young people.

Building on an awareness of self and environs, young people are introduced to community development concepts and are actively engaged in projects to benefit their communities.

Through existing financial management initiatives and business mentorship, young people are encouraged to learn to manage their own finances.

The mentoring relationship will continue until October To register an interest in mentoring or philanthropic support, call Bob Southwell on 9322 1900 or 0414 692 589, or email info@truebluedreaming.org.au