A NEW England town is trying to stop local teenagers from taking-off to other parts of the state once they finish school.
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Liverpool Plains Shire deputy mayor Doug Hawkins said Quirindi had a “big issue” when it came to retaining young residents.
The inaugural “Reconciliation ride”, organised by Cr Hawkins, is aimed at getting high school students to engage with local businesses and emergency services and explore the possibility of living and working in their hometown.
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The ride will roll from Quirindi to Walhollow on Saturday and has signed-on local cops, ambos, firies, bank workers and high school students, among others, to talk shop.
“Just about every young person wants to spread their wings,” Cr Hawkins said.
He said council was currently looking at ways to keep more people learning and working in the community.
“We’re looking to give a bursary for a young person to be put through uni,” he said.
“It’d be an opportunity for kids to be uni-trained, and we’d expect them to work here for four years.”
He said it would make a huge difference to have people raised in the community filling the local jobs.
“If someone’s raised in the area, educated in the area, their heart and soul is in the place,” he said.
The weekend ride is also a part of National Reconciliation Week activities in the region, with of group of Indigenous riders from the high school and Clontarf Foundation joining-on.