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A series of free school workshops focussed on growing personal and community resilience among young people is being held across the Tweed this month as part of the upcoming Tweed Eco Festival.
The workshops, delivered through the Joyality Project, are targeted at primary school-aged students and aim to arm them with strategies for generating resilience, participating in preparedness for natural hazards, and sharing their ideas for a climate-resilient Tweed.
As part of the educational program, the students will display their artwork at the Tweed Eco Festival to be held at Knox Park in Murwillumbah on Sunday 13 November.
Mayor of Tweed Shire Chris Cherry celebrated the program which is helping to build confidence in young people in the Tweed.
“Supporting our young people to feel confident in how our emergency services and community responds during natural hazards is so important,” Cr Cherry said.
“I’m pleased this program has focussed on building strategies to help young people feel okay when big climate events are happening around us, and to stay positive for a climate-friendly future. I look forward to seeing their artwork and murals at the Tweed Eco Festival.”
The Joyality Project’s lead educator Sara Hicks, who is running the education program, said children were learning about resilience through meaningful and empowering activities.
“It’s been a difficult year for many young people who’ve been through flood events in the Tweed,” Ms Hicks said.
“Our aim is for students to explore resilience by building their self-awareness, strategies and support networks to help them connect with help and cope with natural hazard events.”
During the workshops, students will discover their ‘inner powers’ (strengths, personal qualities, mindsets) and learn about healthy coping strategies. They discuss who is around in their family and community to help care for them and other physical resources, and together they generate ideas about actions they can take to build community resilience.
So far, students said the best things they had learned in the workshops were about their own resilience and inner powers, how being prepared can help them feel more resilient, ideas for taking actions, helping themselves and others through challenges and that they have support around them. Some upper primary children said the most important thing they had learned was that they have a voice and their ideas mattered to the community.
The students’ ideas about resilience will be showcased in a collaborative mural display at the Tweed Eco Festival. The mural also incorporates large speech bubbles with personal statements and an audio recording made by the students.
“The voice of young people is often missing in community conversations about resilience and preparedness, and yet they have a unique perspective and many important ideas,” Ms Hicks said.
The public, including other children, are invited to engage and interact with the mural installation during the festival by adding their own ideas for creating an even more climate-resilient community.
The Tweed Eco Festival will be held on Sunday 13 November from 9 am to 2 pm at Knox Park, Murwillumbah and will feature eco markets, kids’ activities, food trucks and live entertainment. Presentations, stallholders and practical workshops will help people take action to be ready for natural hazards and reduce their environmental footprint.
