MacKillop Family Services’ Step:Bike program will receive $35,000 to help vulnerable young people learn about bike maintenance and safety.
The windfall is part of the 2022 Education and Employment annual grants announced by the Geelong based Give Where You Live Foundation.
Step:Bike will follow a successful pilot program run in Geelong during 2019 and early 2020. The program has been a huge success, building confidence, employability skills, responsibility and a community connection for the young people taking part.
The brainchild of one of MacKillop’s residential care workers Rick Bromley, Step:Bike works with disadvantaged and at-risk young people living in out of home care in the Geelong region, giving them the opportunity to learn how to repair and restore bicycles donated by the local police and community members.
Rick loved tinkering with bikes and cars when he was a teenager and felt that the young people he works with in residential care might enjoy it too.
“Many of the young people we work with have never had the opportunity to learn about using tools or maintaining bicycles,” he said.
“While working on the bikes, the kids are not only learning new skills, but it can give us a way to connect and chat while we’re changing a wheel or fixing a chain.
“Through the help of the community, who donate old bicycles, kids get to work on refurbishing a bicycle that will become theirs when it is ready. We’ve had young people who fixed bikes for their siblings, and others who have been able to get part-time jobs once they’ve got their own bicycle to get around.”
In the three years the program has been running, more than 80 refurbished bicycles have been provided to young people who had no previous experience of using tools, changing wheels, checking brakes or safe cycling.
