Among the many privileges I had last week, I was remiss in omitting one from this blog. I had the privilege of meeting up with Bernie Shakeshaft whose organisation, Backtrack, has had brilliant success in rescuing troubled youth from the legal system - or preventing them from committing crimes in the fist place - and then reorienting them via education, imparting useful skills, and psychologically managing their self-esteem. The kids even train sheep-dogs and take them to regional competitions. Have a look at this URL: http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/community-based-program-troubled-teens-halves-crime rates , which indicates stunning estimated cost-benefit results for Bernie's program - it has saved >$6 for every $1 spent. Moreover, a very high percentage of kids going through his program have gone on to full-time employment or further education.
I had always wanted to meet up with Bernie because I had heard so many favourable comments about his program. Indeed, we used his work to bolster our relatively successful campaign last year in the Intelligent Community of Year world-wide contest operated from New York City. Anyway, a colleague of mine, Alun Davies, was escorting a team from the US software company Cisco Systems around Armidale to show-case our social, economic and technological prowess. He invited me along and we had perhaps 45 minutes hearing about Backtrack's achievements. It was most enlightening.
Also, go to http://www.backtrack.org.au/#o1gtpiLOBc7hZXBv.97 for more information. The organisation won the State Government's State Youth Service of the Year award in 2015 ... and many more awards besides, such as:
2015 Regional Development Australian Innovation Awards. Winner: “Research and Education”
Churchill Fellowship Award (Sponsored by Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation) – presented to Bernie Shakeshaft, 2014
Armidale Dumaresq Business Chamber Awards – Outstanding Contribution to Community Services Award (Sponsored by REX Airlines) awarded to BackTrack, 2014
Northern Inland Innovation Awards – Research and Education awarded to BackTrack, 2013
NAPCAN – National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect – Innovative Community Program for Safety and Wellbeing of Young People awarded to BackTrack, 2013. They've won another 10 before that, and the organisation has only been going 10 years. Impressive, eh!?
AS
I had always wanted to meet up with Bernie because I had heard so many favourable comments about his program. Indeed, we used his work to bolster our relatively successful campaign last year in the Intelligent Community of Year world-wide contest operated from New York City. Anyway, a colleague of mine, Alun Davies, was escorting a team from the US software company Cisco Systems around Armidale to show-case our social, economic and technological prowess. He invited me along and we had perhaps 45 minutes hearing about Backtrack's achievements. It was most enlightening.
Also, go to http://www.backtrack.org.au/#o1gtpiLOBc7hZXBv.97 for more information. The organisation won the State Government's State Youth Service of the Year award in 2015 ... and many more awards besides, such as:
AS
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