Mentoring Program Kicks Off!
The Pilot Program for the Blue Mountains Pluriversity began with a Permaculture and Social Enterprise Course coordinated by the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute and The Big Fix with the support of a range of partners including Blue Mountains City Council, the Katoomba & Upper Blue Mountains Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank and Sydney Water.
It is being followed by six months of mentoring 20 young participants to establish a collaborative social enterprise.
There will be a range of diverse learning opportunities over the next few months to get the social enterprise started!
Jack Coggins, Signora Srhoj and Saskya Clarke are currently co-working at The Big Fix and Saskya has enrolled in the Cert lV in Permaculture online and an Introduction to Disability Course. Jack has just finished a week-long Rotary Youth Leadership Course (RYLA).
The Pluriversity is providing mentoring in enterprise development, writing, media, and marketing from Monday to Friday at The Big Fix between 10.30am and 5pm.
Evaluation forms from the original training were collated and the program is being developed according to this feedback.
We’re thrilled to announce that the Rotary Club of Blackheath District 9685 has funded a free two-day Youth Mental Health First Aid Course through Mental Health First Aid Australia for the group. It will be taught by Master MHFA Instructor Jane Armstrong. In the same way that people learn First Aid so that they can respond quickly when someone is physically hurt, this Mental Health First Aid course will educate participants on how to respond when young people are mentally unwell or hurting emotionally. There are options to train to be a trainer in this field as well.
It will be held from 9am to 5.30pm on Thursday and Friday 7 & 8 February at The Big Fix in Blackheath.
The Pluriversity is also lining up a major fundraising event at Blackheath Golf and Community Club and we are pulling together an events team to learn event management through this process.
Also coming up:
- Edible Garden Plant ID and garden training every Sunday at Blackheath Community Farm from 10am until 1pm
- Graphic Design and Marketing (including Adobe) – week beginning January 28 (that’s next week!)
- Grants, Fundraising and Financial Management – week beginning 18 February
- 2 & 3rd March: Blue Mountains Edible Garden Trail – A tour of gardens in the Blue Mountains to view garden designs and how people have built enclosures, ponds and grey-water recycling systems
- Tour to Muru Mittigar Ltd Indigenous Plant nursery – week beginning March 4
- Native plant ID workshop with Linda Thomas from Blue Mountains City Council – week beginning March 18
- Nature Dyeing with visiting international fabric artist Nicole Lamarche – 10am to 3pm Sunday 24 March
- Podcasting: March/April with Rich Bowden from Climactic
- Fundraising Event for Blue Mountains Pluriversity and Enterprise Launch: End March/Early April
- First market stalls for the Pluriversity and Social Enterprise in mid April-May
Around these dates there will be training in carpentry and retrofitting, pop-up coffee cart building, picture framing, garden enclosure building and grey water recycling systems.
For more information contact Lis on 0407 437 553
