What is your name?
Mentoring through Music in Mildura

How old are you?
Just under a year old

Who funds you?
Department of Families, Housing, Community Service and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA)

Musical instrument purchase costs covered by small grant from Foundation For Rural and Regional Renewal.

What kind of mentoring program are you?
Predominantly a one-to-one arrangement between a music mentor and young person.

Who are your young people?
My young people are male and female indigenous students between Years 7 & 9 at school.

What do you try to do for your young people?
My work involves engaging local musicians who are trained as mentors to work one-to-one with young people in the school setting.  My music mentors teach young people an instrument of choice, while offering support and guidance for other aspects of their life.  I try to help disengaged and/or disadvantaged indigenous young people who would not normally have access to music lessons.

Where do you operate? 
In 5 schools across the Mildura region, one of which is on the other side of the mighty Murray so technically in NSW.  I don’t like to discriminate between States!

How many young people and mentors do you support right now?
I currently support 30 young people and 4 outstanding music mentors.

What’s so exciting about you? 
I am a locally driven initiative which harnesses the talents of local mentors who are musicians in their own right.  I give kids the opportunity to learn new skills and gain confidence, while empowering them to take positive charge of their own futures.

How are you different to other mentoring programs?
Using music as a universal springboard for engagement offers a new and innovative approach to reconnecting young people to their education.

Do you have any partners to help you out?
I have formed informal partnerships with the principal staff and music coordinators at the schools involved.  They assist me in identifying young people for participation in the program and provide ongoing support to the students and their mentors.  I am also guided by a Community Reference Group consisting of representatives from a variety of youth and welfare backgrounds.

I am currently working on forming partnerships to provide opportunities for young people to continue moving forward after completing my program.

What have you learnt from your journey so far?
There is great value in investing time and effort in program planning, consultation and implementation.  Being remotely managed, ongoing multi-lateral communication is crucial.

What has been your biggest challenge?
Dare I say it - having adequate ongoing funding.

How have you dealt with this challenge?
By keeping an ear to the ground in the local community and constantly investigating new and additional funding opportunities.

What’s the best thing you’ve done so far?
Last month I presented the young people consistently involved in the program throughout the year with brand new, locally purchased instruments to celebrate their achievements and encourage them to continue.

What is the one piece of advice would you give to other programs?
Keep at it!

Like with any sweet sounding instrument, I require constant fine tuning and adjustment.