BUILT on the foundation of Clontarf values, a group of about 50 Aboriginal boys took a step towards landing their dream careers.
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Students from Singleton, Quirindi, Inverell, Moree and Oxley High talked with regional employers in a speed-dating styled forum in Tamworth, organised by the Clontarf Foundation.
While it’s a chance for employers to show off the opportunities in their businesses, it’s also Clontarf’s chance to put the values it instills in the boys in its academies to the test.
“A lot of the misconception is that we’re just a sporting program and we focus on sport,” Clontarf regional manager Brenden Petterson said.
“Everyone here is a part of a team, it’s like a brotherhood.
“In that brotherhood, there’s expectations around the values that you have the behaviours that you display.”
Mr Pettersen said one focus of the foundation was getting its members in a habit of “thinking about what we can actually give” rather than just “seeing what we can get out of something, or an organisation, or an employer”.
The foundation benefited from $5 million election commitment from New England MP Barnaby Joyce and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion.
Mr Pettersen said Clontarf aimed to build on the most basic life skills all the way up to making sure the boys finish school and get into employment.
The academy boys from Quirindi and Singleton recently helped the Friends of Altona Park in South Tamworth with a tree-planting day.
“We feel empowering people to get active in their community and taking them around to see some of the opportunities we have, gives them some ownership of the community and they take pride of the community that they’re in,” Mr Petterson said.
“Through doing these little things, our boys learn valuable life skills of giving back.”
The foundation has academies in a number of schools around the region, but just the one school in Tamworth in Oxley high.
Mr Pettersen said he’d like to see more schools in the region’s biggest city take the program on.