What Sönke Tremper and his Giz A Break team offer to troubled youth is so far off the beaten path of mental health services, there are no government grants that lend themselves to the charity’s approach.
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The former health services executive founded Giz A Break in 2019 to “do good in a different way”.
He would voluntarily take groups on outdoor adventures, four-wheel-driving and camping around four times a year.
“There was nothing around for youth who didn’t like engaging with mainstream services,” Mr Tremper said.
So, he started combining mental health services and youth work into an off-road tour format.
Six years later, it’s a full-time gig for him, supported by another full-timer and four casual staff, who guide 16 to 20 week-long trips a year with up to nine participants at a time.
While exploring Victoria’s deserts and Alpine region, the Otway Ranges, the Grampians, and, closer to home, the Strathbogies and Murray River region, participants converse, negotiate and consider the people around them.
“It’s not just outdoor ed(ucation),” Mr Tremper said.
“We just use outdoor ed for the conversations that four-wheel-drive-based adventure in nature creates space for.
“It’s about making meaningful connections; a focus on creating meaningful relationships.”
Each day “out bush”, the group holds an awards ceremony where participants are nominated for their achievements and growth.
“It helps rewrite their internal narrative,” social worker Dallas Piggott said.
They also hone important social recovery skills while working in a team of peers, learning how to recover from fallouts.
“One trip we had a near punch-on between two participants on day one, but they were helping each other roll swags just a couple of days later,” outdoor education support worker Brendan Chessum said.
Mr Tremper said kids who had significant mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, past trauma and complex trauma, overlapping with conditions such as autism and ADHD, had often developed extreme flight or fight responses.
The team helps them to self-regulate their emotions by offering safety and security.
“Sometimes it’s scarier being in the calm than the chaos,” Ms Piggott said.
While referrals for the service come from several youth and mental health agencies, many of which fund a participant’s place on the tours, Mr Tremper said around half of all places were funded by donations from businesses and individuals to Giz A Break.
With no government funding available for such a service, the plight to attract donations to continue giving at-risk kids opportunities to go on their camps is endless.
Giz A Break has recently introduced a new fundraising initiative to its offerings that was put to the test earlier this year.
The first Tracks 4 Trauma trip was an overwhelming success, and raised $29,000 in one fun-filled hit.
A group of Goulburn Valley businessmen were the first to take a Tracks for Trauma trip, where they were not only able to support the work of Giz a Break in a powerful way financially, but collect a memorable experience of their own.
How it works, is that groups choose one of Giz A Break’s standard itineraries, paying for the value of it and matching the cost with a donation.
“It’s the ultimate team-building activity or leadership camp,” Mr Tremper said.
“Workplaces can choose the destination (options depend on season).”
Mr Tremper hopes to lead four Tracks 4 Trauma trips each year, which could garner around $120,000 in donations annually.
Registered with Parks Victoria and NSW National Parks, the whole team is trained in outdoor education, 4x4 operation, advanced wilderness first aid and social work.
The team is willing to tailor packages to requirements, providing requests fall under the realm of its services.
For instance, it can facilitate 4x4 training days for people wanting to learn how to get the most out of their vehicles and do it safely.
Every activity will support places for youths on the regular Giz A Break trips.
While some kids might take only one trip, others return, with one boy recently joining his 10th camp.
And support doesn’t end when the camp does.
“It’s not a crisis service; we hold their hands until they don’t need us anymore,” Mr Tremper said.
The team can help with referrals to services and health professionals, wellbeing check-ins, tutoring and single-day respite.
“What floats our boat is to see young people grow, that’s what we’re here for,” Ms Piggott said.
For more information on Giz A Break and Tracks 4 Trauma, visit the Giz A Break website.