Ganbina’s Youth Leadership Program participants recently had the opportunity to enjoy a three course Community Dinner at the Terminus Hotel in Shepparton. This was the first time Ganbina’s current cohort of Youth Leadership Program participants had gathered together since their trip to Melbourne and Sydney in April. You can read more about this exciting trip on our Facebook post.

Community dinners are regular events for the Youth Leadership Program participants, as a means of the participants getting to know each other in a less formal setting, as well as a means of emphasising the ongoing support Ganbina offers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth post secondary school.

We also arrange for several guest speakers to attend our Community Dinners to speak about their career and education journeys. This time we invited Deb Parish from MEGT (Australia’s largest and only national Apprenticeship Network Provider) and Leigh Johnson from Victoria Police.

Deb and Leigh spoke with our young future leaders about their own journey in schooling and employment, as well as what opportunities they had been exposed to throughout their careers. The leadership program participants were highly engaged and asked a lot of questions.

Ganbina’s Employment and Training Project Officer Dayna Seymour was also in attendance and spoke to the group about her own career journey. How she was also a Ganbina participant and how she ended up working for Ganbina, what she loves the most about working with our participants and the many connections and opportunities she has to offer and support the students through, particularly post secondary school.

The night ended with our Youth Leadership Program participants leaving feeling inspired by learning about other people’s career and education journeys, as well as forming a tighter social bond and connection as a group and excited for the next major event on the Youth Leadership Program trip – an all-expenses paid trip to Cairns in July.