Kids are thriving out here No images? Click here The Joy of RepetitionHello Hello Welcome to one of our intermittent newsletters. I write this with tenderness for those whose purpose-filled work is ongoing, and whose effort on behalf of beauty and social justice might go largely unrecognised. I write for those of us whose creative endeavours involve repetition. The joy of repetition. I hope you take hope from this newsy letter and feel accompanied in your own endeavours to bring beauty and care to our worlds. Read on to discover some of what Kids Thrive has been up to... And remember you can REPLY to speak with me. I'm here at the other end. Andrea Rieniets ![]() Andrea Rieniets in the van in the early morning darkness before setting off to a school. In the van, out of the van. Repeat. Creative work can match any tradie, any day. Make it up, muck it up, fix it up. Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig AwayIn the 13th year of Kids Thrive making, unmaking, remaking there is still much to learn from doing the simple things over and over. Such is the life of a creative org. Our Kids Thrive artists bring a high tolerance for repetition, alongside an acceptance of making mistakes and occasionally losing the plot along the way. But the streetlights are always left on so any wayward adventurers can find their way home. Our team has partnered with communities across Victoria for over 12 years, co-designing
and creating award-winning programs - inspiring and skilling kids to lead the changes they want to see in their own lives and in their communities. but then funding comes to an end and kids thrive withdraws, leaving treasured experiences, creative outcomes, and kids with skills to lead them to good places into the future. Our systems-based programs unfold the mysteries of creative approaches for social change with kids. Over the past two years we’ve been developing kits, guides, and creative resources; designing modular steps and maps, creative workbooks for children, films and lesson plans for co-teaching in the classroom and community groups. All of these are designed to be taken from shelves, or accessed online, and taken lovingly back into communities as medicine for the soul - of the individual and the collective. Helping kids to thrive in this systems-based approach now means that what we invent doesn't end with us. What does this mean for you? You can now deliver kids thrive programs yourself – and yes, you can hire many artists to translate this work. ![]() Here is a lovely photo of Andrea Lemon, Lil and Meggs. A lead team. This is what a leader who says 'Let's just do it, let's change children's worlds' looks like. Which is to say, many of the really good ideas take hold on a walk around the block, picking up dog poo in bags. Victorian Health Award FinalistsOn the 13th of February CEO Dr Andrea Lemon, Creative Director Andrea Rieniets and General Manager Alison Bradfield frocked up and rocked up to the awards ceremony for the 2022 Victorian Health Awards, with our program The Bridge (KIDS POWER UP) a finalist in the “Future Healthy Award” category. It was an honour to be recognised for the impact The Bridge pilot has had on young Victorians in primary schools, and the future this program will continue to have through a license to Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. The Bridge becomes widely available to Victorian schools this year. Check out our magnificent team on the link above. ![]() Kids Thrive CEO / Creative Director, Dr Andrea Lemon; Vichealth Chair, The Honourable Nicola Roxon; Kids Thrive Program Director /Lead Artist Andrea Rieniets at the 2022 Victorian Health Awards. Red was a thing that day, even the backup singer was rocking it. Perhaps it was to unconsciously commemorate the 15 years to the day that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered the formal apology to Indigenous Australians for forced removal of children. Vichealth Fast Track Councils OfferBaby Choir is being offered to Victorian local governments through Vichealth’s Future Healthy Program. Vichealth is supporting key local councils to access Baby Choir as an evidence-based arts for health program for early years. Creative Director, Andrea Rieniets led a Zoom presentation to 15 councils’ reps on why Baby Choir works to initiate and secure engagement with vulnerable families who can then go on to benefit from services offered by local council agencies. Baby Choir was co-designed with Banyule Community Health maternity health nurses Elischka Sagemen and Sharleen Cook. And it's a simple little ripper that does some very heavy lifting with very little stress. Please contact Kids Thrive for more details if you are interested in accessing this program. Bass Coast Kids as CatalystsKids as Catalysts continues to drive extraordinary change for kids and communities in Bass Coast for the third year. Our Bass Coast team - creative facilitators Iris Gaillard, Lizzy Rich and coordinator Jenny Churchill, are delivering the program to four schools this year - Newhaven Primary, Bass Valley Primary, Powlett River Primary and Wonthaggi North Primary. Funded by Bass Coast Community Foundation, Vichealth, and Victorian Department of Education, Bass Coast Kids as Catalysts is supporting over 100 kids in partnerships with 22 community groups to activate their communities for fairness. So far this term kids have dived into working definitions, formed values-led teams and set out into the community to find others who share their values. Next they will be interviewing and selecting their Community Action Partners to co-design projects to benefit their community. Not bad for 11- and 12-year-olds. ![]() Kids Thrive Bass Coast Creative Facilitators (l) Lizzy Rich and (r) Iris Gaillard know who they are. ![]() Kids Thrive Bass Coast Programs Coordinator Jenny Churchill applying a lifetime of farming skills to creative challenges. Home Program'...COVID wasn't all things bad Home was co-created by Newhaven Primary grade 6 students and Kids Thrive artists Iris Gaillard, Lizzy Rich, Andrea Rieniets and Andrea Lemon with program co-ordination byJenny Churchill, production management by Marg de Wolff. The team was joined by film-maker Mick Green and sound producer Andy Stewart. In February and March students developed reflective art works and writings, created a short animation and video, and co-wrote a song to communicate their experience of COVID-19 over the previous three years. These creative elements were brought together in a site-specific live performance for school, family and community. Links to these creative works will be live soon… stay tuned. ![]() Voice To ParliamentThe Co-Founders of Kids Thrive supports the Voice to Parliament. For a balm for the heart read Isabel Wilkerson's analogy of inheriting an old house that needs work. 'We in the developed world are like homeowners who inherited a house on a piece of land that is beautiful on the outside, but whose soil is unstable loam and rock, heaving and contracting over generations, cracks patched but the deeper ruptures waved away for decades, centuries even. Many people may rightly say, “I had nothing to do with how this all started. I have nothing to do with the sins of the past. My ancestors never attacked indigenous people, never owned slaves.” And, yes. Not one of us was here when this house was built. Our immediate ancestors may have had nothing to do with it, but here we are, the current occupants of a property with stress cracks and bowed walls and fissures built into the foundation. We are the heirs to whatever is right or wrong with it. We did not erect the uneven pillars or joists, but they are ours to deal with now. And any further deterioration is, in fact, on our hands.'' Let our hands vote. Let our hearts not be swayed by those who may be fearful of change or satisfied only with perfection. This is our work to do… for the seven generations gone and the seven generations to come. 2023 Kids Thrive TeamAs Kids Thrive continues to dance with the joy of repetition even as our dance partners change. Our 2023 team is: - Ande Lemon - CEO/Creative Director / Founder - Andrea Rieniets - Program Director/Lead Artist / Founder - Alison Bradfield - General Manager - Nicole Spencer - Bookkeeper - Rose Mason - Office Manager - Sabrina Matthaus - Child-led Change Creative Hub Producer - Jenny Churchill - Bass Coast Programs Coordinator - Lizzy Rich - Bass Coast Creative Facilitator - Iris Galliard - Bass Coast Creative Facilitator - Ginger Meggs and Lil Monster - Hairy Happiness Facilitators Kids Thrive is endorsed as a deductible gift recipient (DGR) by the Australian Taxation Office and is a registered charity on the Australian Government’s Register of Cultural Organisations (ROCO) under subdivision 30-B of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. |