After years of work, consultation and lobbying, Geelong’s Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative has finally received funding for the development of its Healing Spirit Youth Hub.
The Victorian Government announced last week that Wathaurong would receive $1.6 million to build a culturally safe space for children and young people to access clinical, social and emotional wellbeing services and supports.
Wathaurong CEO Simon Flagg said the funding for the project would have a huge positive impact on the local indigenous community.
“It’s massively important; I look back when I was growing up, we had all these platforms in place, youth camps and the like,” Mr Flagg said.
“It all really strengthened my identity as an Aboriginal person and as a person in general. But as the years have gone on, governments have been less proactive with this kind of funding.
“We’re the largest Aboriginal population in the state, with 7.5 percent of the Victorian Aboriginal population, and a big part of that is the youth population.
“We’re thrilled that, even though it’s long overdue, we can develop a space for our youth to learn their identity and be connected with other mob.”
The Co-op worked hand in hand with indigenous youth to imagine and design the hub, which Mr Flagg said would be integral to its effectiveness.
“This will be their space, that they control and can invite who they need to come in,” he said.
“A key aspect of the hub is that the youth helped develop what they wanted the space to be, how it will look and even the design of it. They wanted a one-stop shop for them, so they’ll have a GP as well as social and emotional supports and services.
“We’ve also embedded cultural elements, men and women’s circles, that sort of thing. It’ll be where we do all our youth activities so they can strengthen their identities in their place, where they lead and control how it works and the values of the space.”
Mr Flagg thanked everyone at Wathaurong and in the youth and broader community who had contributed to the project so far.
“This has been a vision of years, not just a recent thing, wanting to create this space,” he said.
“There have been so many people involved in it and we’re really excited we get to create a vision that the community’s had for years.
“The slogan we’ve got is ‘Strong community, strong culture, strong country’, they’re the three principles we’re really looking at and focusing on.
“If you get all three you’ve got a really strong Aboriginal community, and this hub is one of those steps toward ensuring we’ve got that.”
