Big Brother team’s fundraiser and grants push to get youth suicide prevention program to Griffith

NSW State Murray MP Helen Dalton says a team of dedicated Griffith locals has made excellent progress in bringing a new early intervention youth suicide prevention program to our town.

“Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia is a mentoring program for young people aged seven to seventeen years old,” Mrs Dalton said.

“It’s doing great things in Regional Victoria and we really want to get it up in Griffith.”

“Griffith has amongst the highest suicide rate in Australia. We need more services for our young people in distress.”

Mrs Dalton’s office has helped set up a Griffith Advisory Group that is working hard on raising $55,000 to employ a youth coordinator in the town. Air Force Cadets Flight Lieutenant Michael Borg is Chair of the advisory group. He is supported by Rachael Veenhuizen, Val Woodland, Trish Leonard, Michele Harvey, Kate Hardman, Filomena Pingiaro and Sue Hone.

“The great thing is we’ve got youth representatives on our committee too: Paige Goudie, Alice Ryan and Imreet Singh,” Mrs Dalton said.

“You can’t start a youth program without young people having their say on how things should run.”

The Griffith Advisory Group are planning a gala fundraising event on 1 April. They have also applied for a grant under the Government’s Building Resilient Regional Leaders program.

“People can also make a donation to help get this program off the ground. We have a guarantee that all money raised for Griffith must stay in Griffith,” Mrs Dalton said.

“I’d urge locals to get behind this initiative.”

“So many parents have come to me and said they felt they’ve had nowhere to turn when their teenager was suicidal. We need to do better and we can.”

“We’d like to be able to start in Griffith, then be able to expand to Leeton, Narrandera, Hay, Hillston and Deniliquin.”

Anyone wanting to help get Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia in the Riverina off the ground are invited to contact Mrs Dalton’s Griffith office on (02) 6962 6644 or by email: murray@parliament.nsw.gov.au.

• Topics:

• Mental Health and Welbeing