WELCOME

Connect Community Plus Kids believes we all aspire to live in a community in which its members live a happy, healthy, fulfilling and safe life. The reality is that no matter your postcode, many within our community are not afforded this privilege.

We are a broad-based movement that encourages everyone to involve themselves within their community with disadvantaged children. From the earliest years many children are brought up in an environment where their basic rights are not a part of their daily lives. In the worst cases, abuse is a common and constant part of their lives and the basic necessities are not always there for them. These children are vulnerable and at risk.

Statistics suggest that the abused of one generation have a 70% chance of becoming the abusers of the next generation, thus perpetuating this vicious cycle. The simple act of engaging positively with these children can reduce their chances of disadvantage by 30%. Through mentoring programs with children their risks of disadvantage are further reduced. This simple act of connection represents a significant human saving and also alleviates an otherwise growing economic burden that will be absorbed by the broader community.

We invite the community to take ownership of reducing this alarming trend of disadvantage. The benefits to the community as a whole cannot be underestimated.

At Connect Community Plus Kids we strive to give these children an opportunity to become involved in the broader community and to be contributing members of society. When this is achieved children will turn the tide of generational disadvantage and leave a new legacy.

Our goal is to deliver an accessible, personalised and effective mentoring program that provides life changing results for disadvantaged children and a life affirming experience for mentors.

MENTORING

Mentoring is proven to have a powerful and positive long-lasting effect on young people. Many children from vulnerable backgrounds don’t get the opportunity to partake in caring relationships or be involved in activities that other children take for granted that are vital to their long term growth and development.

We choose mentoring as the vehicle to tackle disadvantage as it is a very cost effective way of dealing with disadvantage across the entire community.

However, beyond simply helping children the advantages of our mentoring program are many and varied and include:

• Engaging the entire community to recognise and deal with the issues surrounding disadvantage
• It connects and provides a conduit for families effected by disadvantage to engage with the broader community
• It provides valuable respite for guardians who in many cases are single parent carers or grandparents bringing up their children’s children