The Reach Foundation (Reach) is a youth

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

organisation established by

Jim Stynes James Peter Stynes OAM (23 April 196620 March 2012) was an Irish footballer who converted from Gaelic football to Australian rules football and the first international player to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2003. ...

OAM and film director Paul Currie in 1994. Reach was created from a desire to inspire every young person to believe in themselves and get the most out of life. Reach runs national school and community-based programs for young people aged 10 to 18 designed to promote their

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

and wellbeing. Programs are run by the young Reach "Crew" in over 500 metropolitan and regional schools and communities across Australia. The main focus is on prevention and early intervention. Programs aim to identify the underlying reasons for negative behaviour and enable young people to redirect their energy towards more positive outcomes.

Working with teachers and youth professionals

Reach works in partnership with The Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (

DEEWR The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) was a Government department, department of the Government of Australia. It was formed in 2007 and absorbed the former departments of Education, Science and Train ...

) to offer the Finding Heroes program to teachers, educators and youth professionals. Finding Heroes is based on the

positive psychology Positive psychology is the scientific study of conditions and processes that contribute to positive psychological states (e.g., contentment, joy), well-being, Positive psychology of relationships, positive relationships, and positive institutio ...

framework and aims to provide teachers, educators and youth professionals with the practical skills and resources to improve the emotional and social wellbeing of students.

Working with indigenous communities

Reach works in partnership with

with the aim of creating relationships with young people in indigenous communities to encourage them to voice their concerns and aspirations for their lives.

Locations

Reach programs are held at the Reach National Office ("The Dream Factory") in Collingwood (Victoria), Sydney, the

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River (New Sout ...

(NSW), and in various other locations throughout Australia.

Leadership

Trisha Squires commenced as CEO from 14 September 2015, taking over from Sarah Davies, who took the position in 2011 when

fell ill with cancer. Anthony Klein began his role as chairman of the board in 2020.

Alumni

Reach Alumni include: *

Jules Lund Jules Lund (born 24 April 1979) is an Australian television presenter from Melbourne. Early life Lund was born in Melbourne in 1979, where he attended De La Salle College, Malvern. Lund studied Graphic Design, Photography and Film before winni ...

, TV and radio personality * Trisha Silvers, 2006

Young Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Government-owned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the state and territor ...

* Harley Webster aka

Phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

, Hip hop MC * Josh Schmidt

Twentysomething (TV series) ''Twentysomething'' is an Australian television comedy programme that premiered on 6 September 2011 on ABC2. The six-part comedy series was created by and starred Jess Harris and Josh Schmidt. It was based on a 2007 six-part RMITV supported se ...

, writer and actor * Saskia Hempele TV personality, ''

Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera that has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons and ...

'' * Jess Harris

, writer and actor * Kayne Tremills

ABC3 ABC Entertains is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC ME. It rebra ...

, TV presenter * Jordiie Leigh, Filmmaker, ''What Would You Do Australia (TV Series)''

The Open Book Project

The Open Book Project was a national campaign launched by Reach in 2011 that endeavoured to show today's teenagers that they're not alone in their lives. Celebrities and members of the general public shared pages of their teenage diary revisiting the thoughts, feelings and ambitions they had as a teenager. Celebrity entries included

Hamish Blake Hamish Donald Blake (born 11 December 1981) is an Australian comedian, television and radio presenter, actor and author. Since 2003, he has worked with Andy Lee as part of the comedy duo Hamish and Andy. The pair have performed live and on ...

Cathy Freeman Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman (born 16 February 1973) is an Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, set while fin ...

Kerry Armstrong Kerry Michelle Armstrong (born 12 September 1958) is an Australian actress and author. She is one of only two actresses to win two Australian Film Institute Awards in the same year, winning Best Actress in a Leading Role for ''Lantana'' and ...

and

Jesse Martin Jesse Martin, OAM (born 26 August 1981), is a German-Australian sailor who in 1999, at age 18, became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop and unassisted, Martin's journey in the S&S 34 sloop ''Lionheart-Mistral'' ...

References

External links

Reach website

Reach on Facebook

Reach on Twitter

The Open Book Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reach Foundation Children's charities based in Australia Organizations established in 1994