This case study provides an overview of the collaborative process our team undertook with partner schools over the last 12 months, and reflections on the hurdles and support we experienced as we embarked on this human-centered design project.
Kim reflects on her family as a source of inspiration for creativity and ingenuity. When resources are scarce, the greatest ingenuity and innovations can arise.
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Belinda Robinson joined our team of professional coaches in 2020. She reflects on her first coaching experience on our programs, and the unique impact Covid-19 had on her experience.
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The Helmsman Project team has been very busy this year working on a human-centred design project in collaboration with high school partners to help us test and evaluate new potential offerings to address key challenges schools face in supporting young people.
Our program offers a blend of developmental coaching and adventure education targeted towards young people who are at risk of not realising their full potential.
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In psychology, resilience is the capacity to bounce back from adversity, conflict, and failure or even positive events, progress, and increased responsibility. For our team, resilience is three things: welcome challenges, bounce back and be courageous.
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Wednesday, 22 July marked seven years of The Helmsman Project delivering life-changing programs to young people. We’ve come a long way since 2013 and while many aspects of our organisation have changed and grown over the years, we are proud to stick by the same mission: to help young people develop the skills and perspective to set goals, overcome setbacks, persevere and thrive.
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Right now, some students are doing it tough. And as we haven't been able to set foot in our partner schools since March, we've developed an initiative to provide our much needed support to those students in need.
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One of our values at The Helmsman Project is self-regulation, which is also a life skill we help our young participants develop and is a critical leadership tool.
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Our CEO Kim Larochelle shares how the value 'hope' helps frame her leadership and management strategies.
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COVID 19 has had and is continuing to have a significant and substantial impact on the education of billions of students around the globe. Schools have been closed and teachers have had to develop remote educational experiences and content, almost overnight, using new and at times unfamiliar online technologies.
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As the reality of self-isolation, social distancing and home schooling sets in, I can’t help myself but to think that some positive - dare I say, great - things will come out of this dire situation.
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Our organisation has been working with young people for nearly seven years, supporting them to maintain a positive wellbeing, and we would like to offer families some of our expert knowledge in this space.
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As the world faces unprecedented events due to coronavirus, 'business as usual' is disrupted. Appreciative Inquiry is a strengths-based leadership technique to engage in meaningful, positive conversations in support of successful change initiatives.
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As we welcome a new year, Kim gives an overview on how The Helmsman Project is kickstarting 2020.
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On Wednesday 4 December, The Helmsman Project celebrated 63 young people from schools across Western Sydney completing our program. The Helmsman Project graduation is a highly anticipated event. It gives everyone an opportunity to hear directly from the students the impact the program has had on them.
Read more As we farewell another year, the time is ripe to take stock on where we are...
Read more We are extremely privileged at The Helmsman Project to have a close community of truly remarkable individuals supporting our work. One of these is Dr Sean O’Connor...
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Zena shares her reflection on the impact The Helmsman Project has not only on the participants, but the surrounding community.
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The Helmsman Project Youth Board was given the opportunity to run a two-hour workshop with 60 professionals from Macquarie Bank global offices.
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The Helmsman Project started as a vision to help young people achieve their potential and make a difference in the world. This vision was brought into being through the passion and dedication of a team of people committed to this idea. Now, six years on, we know our program makes a difference in the lives of our participants not only because that’s what our research tells us, but most importantly, because our graduates tell us it does.
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Monday 22 July marked six years since the launch of our very first Helmsman Project program and we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on our journey.
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Kim outlines The Helmsman Project's key focuses underpinning the goals of scale and growth.
Read more Kim addresses the challenges faced by charities in Australia, touching on how The Helmsman Project manages these and the important role of strategy.
In my first week at The Helmsman Project I was lucky to visit the schools and meet the students enrolled in our programs. One of the highlights of The Helmsman Project’s program is the community projects which students plan and commit to once the program concludes....
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This month, The Helmsman Project turns five - an achievement that would not have been possible without the generosity and commitment of many…
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Innovation and growth can only happen when the client's needs or desires are understood. With this thought in mind and in line with our aspiration to continue to impact the lives of our graduates, we recently launched a new and exciting initiative...
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We have recently held our fourth annual charity dinner, presented at The Funding Network’s Macquarie Foundation event and launched our 10th wave of programs. Amongst all this, we have developed, refined and launched a five-year strategy to support The Helmsman Project to grow and prosper into the future...
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This year is The Helmsman Project’s fifth anniversary and our organisation has seen many changes as it continues to evolve and develop further into new programs and opportunities. We have seen changes in management, staff, and programs, coupled with increased corporate sponsorship. Most importantly, we have witnessed vast changes in our most recent cohort of graduates.
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We are very excited to be launching a brand new opportunity for graduates of our programs: The Helmsman Project youth board.
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Innovation is at the heart of The Helmsman Project. In line with this focus, we recently held a panel discussion on ‘Innovation in the workplace’ featuring three world leaders in technology: Atlassian, Amazon Web Services and Rackspace. It might be surprising to hear that the main topic discussed wasn't technology...
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The Helmsman Project celebrated four years of operations last month, a milestone to which more than 120 volunteers have contributed and which has impacted just over 300 young lives. It has been no small feat - hope, self-regulation and resilience have been essential ingredients to our progress.
The Helmsman Project is an innovative blend of developmental coaching and adventure education targeted toward Year 9 students who are at risk of not fulfilling their potential. At its essence, the program seeks to help the students take bigger perspectives on themselves, others and the world. By doing this we help them build hope, self-regulation and resilience.
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According to some researchers, self-regulation is one of the most important factors for encouraging academic engagement and preventing risky behaviour. While this is a skill that is important in every stage of life, it is particularly important for young people who are making critical decisions about their futures.
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For those who aren’t familiar with the word ‘helmsman’ it can be a little bit of a tongue twister. The ‘helm’ is what steers a ship, usually it’s a wheel. The ‘helmsman’ is the person in charge of steering the ship. He or she guides the rest of the crew to reach their destination.
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Youth mental health and wellbeing is a very big issue in Australia. With COVID-19 leading to increased loneliness and joblessness as well as a lack of social engagement, young Australians need now more than ever the right support to manage - and thrive - through life’s challenges. Mariama, Destiny, Lisa, Lyn, Zeenat, Vivian, Tallara, Milly and Kate from Chester Hill High School took in their stride to bring that much needed support to their peers. | Read more →
Daliya El Helou is a 2019 graduate of The Helmsman Project and is now a Youth Ambassador of The Helmsman Project. Daliya had no idea the level of impact The Helmsman Project would truly have on her but with her enthusiasm, optimism and diligence, she approached the program with an open mind and as an opportunity to learn essential life skills that will help her personal growth and development. | Read more →
In 2014, Dave had the opportunity to be the cohort teacher for The Helmsman Project program at Chester Hill. In 2015, Dave Criniti founded The Run Beyond Project, an experiential program that supports young people as they work towards the accomplishment of a challenging but achievable goal of running a half marathon. Read on to learn about how his participation in The Helmsman Project impacted his new venture... | Read more →