Nine people recently graduated from personal leadership program Generation Thrive during a graduation event held at Raidis Estate in Penola.
Generation Thrive is a social enterprise of personal leadership program Youth Opportunities and the Riddoch Business and Community Association (RBCA) collaborated with Generation Thrive to deliver the program to the community.
The three-month online program empowers young people to build skills and achieve personal and professional goals and participants connected with their coaches via Zoom biweekly in their own time.
The graduates who attended the graduation evening read out reflections on their growth and achievements, while those who could not attend sent in video messages and personal reflections.
Generation Thrive general manager Courtney Grigg said she was excited and proud of the graduates’ achievements and their commitment to their personal and professional development.
“They have done an amazing job and credit to them for the application of their learning over the last three months,” Ms Grigg said.
“They have done an incredible job and really pushed themselves out of their comfort zone and should really just reflect on what is important to them, to find what their success is and just really evaluate ‘what do I want my life to look like’ and ‘what are the habits and attitudes I need to achieve that’.”
Riddoch Business and Community Association President Nicole Reschke said the Generation Thrive program was a great collaboration between Ms Grigg and the RBCA.
“Sometimes we might not see it at the forefront here living in the country these opportunities can come to us, so it was a great opportunity to bring it to our community,” Ms Reschke said.
“Some council surveys that our community has done in the past couple of years, growing our youth has been one key pillar they want our region to work on.
“So we really wanted to follow through on that request and that need as well.”
Ms Reschke said she was very excited for what the graduates had achieved and learned during the program and how they had grown within themselves and their careers.
“They are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of other people that do not get this opportunity and have to use life experiences to learn what they have learned whereas they have learnt it in a short space of time from a great knowledge base,” she said.
Ms Reshcke said she was pleased with how the program went during its first year and hoped it would return bigger and better next year.
“The first year is always the hardest so it is great to see it come to fruition and receive such great comments,” she said.
“Hopefully that will resonate in the community and people will see that it is really beneficial for the important youth in their lives or youth in their workplaces to come along and do such a course.”
Ms Grigg encouraged others to participate in the program because there were many ups, downs and curveballs in life.
“If we do not have the tools or skills to be able to tackle them it can really have a big impact on our life and our happiness and our satisfaction,” she said.
“So I would encourage people to really upskill themselves to grab as much personal development and professional tools in their life so they can always feel like they can be at the best version of themselves and to feel like they can handle change and challenges and feel resilient and confident in their lives.
“Thank you to the Riddoch Business and Community Association for supporting the program and for investing in their local community.”
