4 October 2019

Project 8 changing attitudes these school holidays - Bermagui, Bournda

| Ian Campbell
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Project 8 mentor, Meaghan Holt, getting a standing ovation at the Festiva of Open Minds last month. Photo: David Rogers Photography for About Regional.

Project 8 mentor, Meaghan Holt, getting a standing ovation at the Festival of Open Minds last month. Photo: David Rogers Photography for About Regional.

The next stage of Project 8 launch in the second week of the school holiday with workshops in Bermagui and at Bournda National Park.

With the support of South East Arts, young people aged 12 to 20 will explore lyrics, rhymes, music and video technology, dance and movement with local professional creative practitioners. The end result will be positive messages about staying safe and having a good time.

At Bournda, on Thursday October 10, filmmaker Carl Broman and spoken word artist Meaghan Holt AKA Sassi Nuyum will continue their work with the group who took part last holidays in Eden.

New participants are always welcome as each stage of the process brings new skills and experience. The group will work on creating a video to go with the strong messages they created about looking after your mates and partying responsibly.

On Friday, October 11 at the Bermagui Surf Club, professional dancers Warren Foster Jnr, Gabriela Green and Cayce Hill, invite young people to take part in another workshop exploring dance and music, as well as video technology with Scott Baker.

Movement will add a new element to Project 8, delivering the message with powerful beats and breaks. No dance experience is required. All sessions are free and lunch is provided.

“This is a great opportunity for people to get some hands-on experience with professional artists,” says South East Arts Executive Directory, Andrew Gray.

“We are really pleased to see yet another great example of the arts creating health outcomes – especially for young people.

“All the Project 8 creative mentors have a lot of experience working with young people and have developed really fun workshops that really bring out amazing creativity and ideas,” Mr Gray says.

The song written during previous Project 8 sessions in Bega, is currently being recorded with young musicians and Ricky Bloomfield at Merimbula School of Music. ‘Take Care – Be Aware’ sends a strong, but thoughtful, message about looking after your mates and yourself when you are out in a group.

Project 8 Co-ordinator, Gabrielle Powell says, “This project is about supporting young people to create inspirational alcohol and drug harm minimisation message for their peers.”

“Project 8 focusses on increasing resilience and positivity. Once all these project workshops are complete the participants will have developed a suite of videos ready for releasing on social media.”

The workshops have been made possible by a grant from the Australian Government through the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, led by South East Arts in partnership with the Local Drug Action Team and other agencies, aimed at preventing and reducing alcohol and other drug-related harms at a grass roots level.

For bookings and further information on both workshops contact Gabrielle Powell from South East Arts on 0427 806 033 or email [email protected]

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