AN Albury youth worker has blasted the Federal Government for denying an indigenous circus program extra funding because it believed it was not “value for money”.
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Albury youth development officer Mandy Wilson said a council-run circus program had kept 13 disengaged indigenous children at school and many more young people were begging to be allowed in.
But the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and Arts recently denied the council a grant of $54,000 to have the program extended.
“They (the Government) keep telling us that community services need to work together to help young indigenous people become more engaged in the community,” she said.
“Here we have a program that is successful, that is giving kids a reason to be engaged in school and that is providing them with a little structure and suddenly it’s not ‘value for money’.”
The program Ms Wilson refers to gives 13 students from Albury, James Fallon and Murray high schools the chance to participate in a two-hour circus skills workshop at the Fruit Fly Circus every Friday.
The catch is students have to go to school.
Albury High School Aboriginal liaison teacher Paula Rundell-Gordon said a number of her students said the only reason they attended school was for the circus program and she had seen remarkable improvements in their confidence ever since.
“One of our year 9 girls was really shy but since the Fruit Flies’ program she’s joined a volunteer group, will get involved in anything she can get her hands on and even performs and gives speeches at assembly,” she said.
“The kids have also been given a stronger sense of their Aboriginality as a group, they’re more connected.”
James Fallon Aboriginal education worker Jenny Murray said one of her year 11 boys who barely came to school had since attended a Sydney University orientation day and was completing his HSC.
Meanwhile, year 9 student Kenita Quayle, 14, has changed from a girl who was originally too scared to introduce herself to someone who performs indigenous dancing on stage.
“In the past I was too ashamed and I thought I couldn’t do it,” she said.
“Now I just get into it and get it done and when I come off stage it feels really good.”
The program has been on hold for three months due to a lack of funding but the Community Services Department, through the Greater Southern Area Mental Health Service, has now provided enough money to keep it running for 35 weeks.
After that, Ms Wilson will have to fight for more money.
Editorial — page 16
