Our GEM programs are pretty simple and pretty special. They’re all about Growing Eddie Memories.
What’s an Eddie memory? Well for us, an Eddie Memory is all about those moments of change and
core memories that help shape who we are. We make these kinds of memories every day on our
Camps. It’s something as simple as having someone help you overcome a challenge or show genuine
interest in what you have to say. For children, these moments and memories help build them into
strong, resilient, healthy, and confident people.
Before the unpredictability of COVID-19, we were able to rely on our regular residential programs to
make those memories, but now, we’ve needed to build a model that is dynamic and adaptable for
our current climate. We also know that the pandemic drove increases in social isolation and mental
health concerns in young people, increasing the need for us to respond. Our GEM programs take
those memory-making, transformative moments that happen on our residential, weeklong programs
and put them in a shortened day program. Our GEMS have been focused on:
Promoting positive mental health and wellbeing
Developing Relationships
Building Resilience
Developing social skills
Increasing self-efficacy and self-worth
So far, we have run five GEM programs and the feedback has been phenomenal. Our initial
evaluation last Winter showed that:
Everyone involved indicated, in one way or another, improvement in relationships, the opportunity
to build resilience, development of social skills, increased self-efficacy, and self-worth.
This January we continued our success with more GEM programs.
We thank St Joseph's College, Geelong for hosting us and providing the space for our Volunteers to create a beautiful community of acceptance and belonging.
This program was made possible by Vic Health's Reimagining Health grant. We thank Vic Health for their financial support.
We are energised by this new model of engaging with young people and welcome any agency,
corporate, or community support to continue this important program into the rest of 2022 and
beyond.
To get in contact, send us a message at eo@ercvic.com
