RiverTracks & Landcare helping kids having a hard time
Growing the Rivers to Ranges Program - A Program Built on Practical Experience and encouraging environmental stewardship among young people
Capacity building - LEP_23_035
The issue
Encouraging environmental stewardship among young people is a known difficulty, whilst being one of the most powerful tools we have to influence positive outcomes for Landcare in the future. At the same time, there are many young people who now face complex intersecting challenges, including disengagement from education, contact with the justice system, housing instability or homelessness, trauma, employment, poverty, substance use and psychological distress. The potential for Landcare activities to be able to provide major mental health benefits, including reduced stress, lowering depression, and improving emotional resilience has been proven.
The solution
RiverTracks and Tweed Landcare have come to together to establish a work experience initiative, the Rivers to Ranges program. RiverTracks, a local organization that has been established by a group of Tweed Valley community members to support young people who are working through challenges and disengagement to develop skills, community, purpose and a sense of belonging. This project aims to address youth unemployment and boost environmental stewardship in the Tweed, Ballina and Byron Shires. The Rivers to Ranges program offers a hands-on, immersive experience with local environmental organisations. Over eight weeks, young people engaged with the RiverTracks program will spend one day per week receiving a half-day training session from a different environmental organisation, focusing on low-risk practical skills involved in their daily work. As part of this program, RiverTracks will now visit one Landcare site per school term to learn and engage in different Landcare activities (e.g. planting, weeding and sharing in a good (old fashioned!) morning tea).
The impact
We hope that our partnership with RiverTracks will ultimately support the growth of stronger social connections for kids going through tough times, help them re-connect with nature, build self-esteem, new interests and skills that help support environmental stewardship / engagement with Landcare. Over the coming weeks and months we will seek to (1) Provide practical work experience and help kids to develop some essential employability skills like teamwork, punctuality, communication, and field safety, (2) Enhance environmental literacy and a sense of stewardship among young people, and (3) Foster social inclusion through participation in meaningful community work.
We hope the Rivers to Ranges program will enable Tweed Landcare to connect youth with potential employers and/or pathways for further training and traineeships that support Landcare into the future.
Key facts
- Landcare provides an entry point for youth to find meaningful, purpose-driven and practical work experience in the environmental sector.