3rd September, 2007

CHOECHOE BRERETON

For Brendan Wade, Queensland state livestock manager for Landmark - one of Australia’s largest sellers and suppliers of livestock, the reason for the company’s support for the Stock Up for Hope Charity Drove is clear. It’s all about helping young people.

“Landmark’s business is rurally based and we have 400 branches spread across remote areas, areas where we have younger people who have some adjustment issues,” says Mr Wade, whose managerial territory canvases Queensland and the Northern Territory.

GOING A DROVING?: The Stock Up for Hope Charity Drove offers business people the chance to spend three days and three nights on the trail either on horse back or quad bike in outback Queensland, tailing up to 1000 head of cattle. “(T)he biggest problem facing our kids is coping with family breakdown,” he says. “Then there’s bullying, pressure about school results and so on. All kids need a listening ear, no matter how big or small the issue they face.” - Tim Mander, chief executive of Scripture Union Queensland.

“Getting involved with the Stock Up for Hope Charity Drove is our way of contributing towards putting chaplains in rural areas and supporting the advocacy of the organisers for helping people. ”

The Stock Up for Hope Charity Drove is a nine week cattle drove across Queensland which aims to raise funds to support Scripture Union (SU) chaplains and youth support workers in the state’s more remote regions.

For $3,000 a person, businesses can take part in the drove, embarking on a corporate adventure to see the raw Aussie outback from the vantage point of a saddle or quad bike. Spanning three days and three nights, they’ll shed their fine corporate threads for modern day equivalents of trail slickers and complementary Akubra, spending their days under the tutelage of five professional drovers and their nights with their swags around the campfire.

The drove kicked off on 25th August. Scheduled to run over nine weeks, it will see around 1,000 head of cattle making their way from the Queensland community of Hughenden, more than 300 kilometres south-west of Townsville, to Blackall, more than 400 kilometres to the south, where it will culminate with the sale of 1,500 head of beef - some of which have been donated - followed by a gala dinner.

Twenty-five businesses are already sponsoring staff in the drove. The event's partners include Queensland Country Life magazine, Landmark and Elders.

Duncan Brown, the Stock Up for Hope events director and former chief executive of Scripture Union Queensland, says he has no doubts that the anticipated target of $200,000 will be met as a result of this, the inaugural drive.

“I am fairly confident that we will do it,” he says. “And with that we can put support staff in rural Queensland to make sure that our army of chaplains are also supported.”

Scripture Union, which has been operating in Queensland for more than 75 years, is the largest provider of chaplains in Queensland state schools and currently has more than 200 chaplains statewide, with the number set to double this year.

The chaplains, who work with youth across the state encountering issues ranging from suicide to mental illness, substance abuse and depression, come from all walks of life and Christian denominations.

Most have relinquished substantial salaries and professional recognition for the chance to sow into the lives of the young people. The money raised from the drove will provide increased support for those chaplains already in the field and see more appointed to regional schools and communities.

Tim Mander, chief executive of Scripture Union Queensland, says the organisation is thrilled the project will result in more chaplains being released where they are needed most to help young people.

“(T)he biggest problem facing our kids is coping with family breakdown,” he says. “Then there’s bullying, pressure about school results and so on. All kids need a listening ear, no matter how big or small the issue they face.”

While the Federal Government $115 million National School Chaplaincy Program will see the number of school-based Queensland chaplains grow by 385 this year alone, more resources are needed.

Call figures put through to national young person’s counselling service, Kids Help Line in 2006 illustrate, the scale of the issue. Of the 43,950 calls made to the help line from Queensland, 50 per cent originated from regional and remote areas.

A comparison with national call rates reveals that young people from Queensland grappled more with issues of leaving home, homelessness, child abuse and family relationships. Meanwhile, figures from the Australian Institute for Suicide Research confirm a 10 percent increase in suicide rates for Queensland inside the same year.

In a recent interview in Queensland Country Life magazine - one of the sponsors of the drove, one teenager talked about the impact a chaplain had made on their life.

Battling loneliness and anger at living in a small town, the teenager discovered that the listening ear of the local school chaplain helped to usher perspective back into their life. Describing how they had struggled with life in a country town, the teenager said it wasn't until they talked to the chaplain about their feelings that things started to change.

“The chaplain and I began to meet every week to encourage me and help me realise that I am special and that I needed to talk to my parents about the way I feel and how lonely I felt living in a small town," they told the magazine. "As a result things at home are starting to work out much better.”

It’s stories like that which give a clear indication of the impact of the chaplaincy program.

“If we can bring some hope to young people, connect them to God and let them know that they are created for a special purpose and that God loves them, then even if their whole world falls apart they will still have hope,” notes Min Jones, outback regional coordinator for Scripture Union in Queensland and a participant in the drove. “This drove is a wonderful opportunity to say that kids are really important and that is essentially what the chaplains are a symbol of.”

For more information, visit www.stockupforhope.org.au/drove.