They came, they saw, they hiked… and canoed… and built their self esteem and developed resilience along the way.
Personal development skills are vital for the twelve 14 – 17 year olds from the Mirabel Foundation who stepped out of their comfort zones and into the unknown of an Outward Bound Australia (OBA) expedition. Mirabel Foundation assists children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental illicit drug use and are now in the care of extended family (kinship care). Personal development skills will help them manage their lives.
Sponsored by Mirabel Foundation and the Australian Outward Bound Development Fund, the group traveled more than 30 km on foot and in canoes over 8-days through the Black Ranges State Park of Victoria. This partnership helps the children in Mirabel’s care to discover their true potential and break the cycle of addiction.
Mirabel first came together with OBA in 2009 and have facilitated seven trips since then. Over the years, 90 young people have attended journeys to develop their character and challenge themselves. They have explored the Grampians region and the Snowy River in Victoria. They even made the trek to our National base in Tharwa, ACT to visit Namadgi National Park. While discovering beautiful areas of Australia, the young people develop a higher level of self-esteem, an understanding of their impact on others and how to recover from setbacks.
Mirabel will engage their recent cohort with an overnight experience to reminisce about the trip and discuss how the course has impacted their lives. Looking to the future, Mirabel plans to send as many of their almost 1,700 young people experience an Outward Bound course as they can. The 2020 course is already in the planning stages and will take up to 16 more young people on a trip of a lifetime. Look for more updates online, and to find out more about the great work the Mirabel Foundation is doing, visit their website here.
