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We're going behind the scenes to see and understand modern agriculture, because no matter whether you're in it or not, you probably don't know all the pieces to just how incredible, diverse and multi-layered agriculture is. We do this by uncovering the real stories, experiences and voices of modern agriculture.
Oli Le Lievre 0:02
This week, we're sitting down with Adam demamu. He's the CEO and co founder of Boyz to the bush. Now, if you haven't heard of boys to Bush, we're going to find out pretty quickly what it's all about. My take is it really is about creating that environment for young fellas, to get the role models the community kind of around to help them be good men. And I guess that's paraphrasing your website there. Adam mate, welcome to the humans of agriculture podcast. Hey,
Unknown Speaker 0:26
mate, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 0:27
Can you tell us a little bit about before we get into the backstory and your story a high level? What is boys to the bush?
Speaker 2 0:33
Boys to the bush is charity set up to support youth, boys predominantly, and in our intensive programmes. We tend to work with vulnerable kids, kids that experience or have experienced a lot of trauma in their lives and are often really disconnected from everything. They're kind of the core base. And we run a whole heap of programmes for these kids, but basically around engaging with them and then connecting them to what's around them. What
Speaker 1 0:59
would you say like is the most rewarding and the best part of your job that you get good
Speaker 2 1:04
question. I actually got asked that the other day, and it took me a while to come up with it. I think for me now, I'm not actually working with the kids these days, but for me now, it's just hearing all these stories of success that I know nothing about and have nothing to do with. I'm really proud that all this stuff's happening around me that we've been fortunate enough to be a part of in the early days, working with the kids, and we continue to be in our different roles now. But when you hear little stories about a kid catching his first fish, or a kid getting a job, or a kid learning to brush his teeth, or something really little like that, I get a real sense of pride out of that, as well as seeing the passion for which our staff talk about what they do, I think that there wouldn't be many employers out there that when you ask their staff to talk about what they do, there would be many out there that would have the employees speak as passionately as we do. So that fills my bucket immensely those days,
Speaker 1 1:57
because your background before you were a CEO and running voice of the bush. You were a school teacher. Yeah. What took you down that pathway?
Speaker 2 2:04
My background in teaching was in special needs and in a behaviour unit for the majority of my teaching career, so I guess I was kind of doing this sort of stuff whilst I was working for the Department of Education, and for whatever reason, I'll just wired that way. I really enjoyed connecting with the kids that didn't often fit in at school, and I enjoyed creating little communities for those kids and trying to build a rapport with them and their kids. And I think myself and the other co founders, that was kind of our skill set and our passion, what we really loved about teaching was the small amount of time we got to spend doing these types of programmes for the kids in the school. So we used to run some camps and different boys programmes at our high school in Albury. And we spoke about for years, we should do more of this, and we should run camps at our holidays. And probably for a decade, we spoke about it. And then after some time, we kind of hit the bullet and put it. Let's let's have a crack. So we did, and here we are today. So
Oli Le Lievre 3:03
you talked about it for a decade, which is probably where a lot of good ideas come from. What changed? Was there a moment or an event that happened that? Well, I
Speaker 2 3:12
think initially we spoke about it, and early days, we just decided we'd run some CARE for Kids, any kids, and we probably thought we'd get city kids coming out to farms for camps and stuff, and what we actually got were kids from a lot of kids from out of home care, and kids that didn't have males in their lives. And you know, there was a lot of stories on those early days of the needs these kids had certainly opened our eyes up like I thought I'd seen them. Heard it all before with the kids I was working with in schools, but a lot of the kids that were seeing those early days, they had and were experiencing trauma that I'd never dreamt of. And there was a few different sort of light bulb moments. But after a couple of years of doing just camps in our spare time, we decided, well, they're bored at the time, sort of said we can keep chipping away running some camps, or one of you can leave your job and have a crack and see if we can build this into something else. And fortunately, Richard and Tim, my mates and co founders, pushed me towards doing it full time, and I was really keen to do so. So that was five years ago that we actually started having a crack. I left teaching in april 2017 to be the general manager of voice of the bush. And I had absolutely no idea what I was generally managing time. But everything about it has grown organically, even when we had to set it up as a charity in those early days. You know, the money to set up a business and stuff with this idea we had, we were mowing lawns after work to generate the funds to set the charity up. And early camps, we were big borrowing and literally stealing from friends and family the camp equipment and swags and bits and pieces we needed to run it. And I think that's part of the beauty of who we are, and we're a little bit rough around the edges in some respects, I guess. But. I think the community really love that we're real people, and there's no with us. We just sort of just do what we think's right for the kids.
Speaker 1 5:08
So tell me, Adam, a little bit more about your kind of background, like, Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 2 5:12
So I moved around a bit as a kid, but I was born in Leighton in New South Wales, and then grew up kind of out in Cowra. Mum and Dad had a pub in Cowra, so we lived there for quite a fair chunk of my childhood, and then I was then I went to boarding school in Forbes at redmont, so sort of Western New South Wales, sort of pretty familiar with mum and dad were in Borrell and Miranda at different times. And I went to uni in Bathurst, and then found myself down here, but I had a really good childhood. I had parents that cared for me, spoiled me with everything they could, and introduced me to good people and instilled in me good values, like they did with my siblings. But yeah, and I was really fortunate to have my childhood, and I guess that's what we're trying to replicate in this for a lot of the kids that don't have either parents in their lives, or the parents may not have great values or morals, and I guess we're doing what a lot of parents we would hope a lot of parents would do for their kids, but for whatever reason, car
Speaker 1 6:13
for those people who don't know, which I presume, would be the vast majority of people. What's it like to grow up in a pub and around all sorts of different people in a community.
Speaker 2 6:23
Looking back, it was bloody amazing. I think what it did really well, like looking back now, like I was pouring beers when I come home from primary school, as was my little brother. He used to run the tab. I'd be pouring the beers, and the old man would have a bit of a sleep and a chop out for an hour while we might run the barn. Like, imagine going into a pub. Now I'm a 12 year old schooner rushes, but it forced you to have conversations with people from all walks. It was a workers type pub, so you'd have your shearers, your tradies, your battlers, all sorts. So you had to learn to initiate conversations, which is a bit of a lot Lost Art these days, I think, particularly with the kids. So it was good. I guess one part of what I did, like dad, was always when we lived at the pub, Dad was always on call, I guess so I struggled, I reckon for a while. I think in the end, mom and dad got a rental house so dad could be present with us kids when he wasn't at work. I think I personally struggled, particularly in the early days at the pub, because someone would always come in and want to speak to that. So if he was promised he could be able to go kick a footy, you know, I know what it'd be like. He'd get dragged away, and I know I struggle with that. And again, it's one of those things we try to instil with our mentors, which our employees, is that when we give our time, we're present. It's some, plenty of yarns, you know, like mum and dad were the most and still are the most generous people with their time. For people often battlers, like we used to always have randoms at Christmas lunch with us that had, you know, some of the drinkers that didn't have family, or bloody footballers that dad had bring to town from Fiji or the Northern Territory or somewhere, they used to live with us at the pub. And some interesting characters along the way and witness blues at the pub. And I think when I was a little bit older, I was sort of able to do a bit of the bouncing, which was handy for Dad, baby. So my childhood was bloody great. Mum and Dad are wealthy people, but they're very generous people with their time, and that's something I try and replicate in my own personal life as much as I can.
Oli Le Lievre 8:24
Did you decide pretty early on that you wanted to be in and around rural communities, given the places you grew up and then, obviously now in Albury? Oh, look,
Speaker 2 8:32
I don't think I ever made a conscious decision. I think for a period of time in high school, I think I was focused on what a footballer unfortunately, I, as I'm reminded by all my mates, I lack part and ability or so. I was never going to get there, but I get reminded plenty of people about my lack of ability and stuff, but that was kind of a focus for a fair time for me. And I actually went to Sydney for about five minutes after I finished school. I think I lasted a week or so. And I think then I just realised I couldn't do the business, the chaos. I didn't give it much of a crack either, to be honest. But there's so many positives to regional and rural communities we're fortunate enough to see in our roles now, you know how big a heart these communities really do want what's best for their community and for the people, and we're able to now provide a platform and opportunities for people to get more actively involved in creating better outcomes for the community. So yeah, to answer your question, I have no idea when I decided I wanted to do more work in regional areas, but knowing what I know now, I enjoy going to the city, and I spend a bit of time there with work in Melbourne and Sydney and stuff, but it's always so nice to get back to my normal, which is a little bit slower post, yeah,
Speaker 1 9:45
for sure, growing up in different pubs and areas, was it the Leeton phantoms? Is that what the rugby union team was? That's the rugby
Speaker 2 9:52
union and the greenies is the rugby league. I think I made my first game there, but I was young when I left, and spent most of my childhood in cow. Dad was actually a butcher in gleaton, but then pub in cow and then it's the cower magpies, and then Forbes to Forbes magpies. And that's all part of those communities, is the local clubs. And I love that part of it. I've always been fortunate enough to be a part of lots of things, and generally, sporting clubs and communities within the community. And again, that's what we're creating for a lot of kids that don't belong to any little communities within their community, so it's a very important part of what we're doing now. But yeah,
Oli Le Lievre 10:30
and did you guys have much family around, given that you were living in different places at different times?
Speaker 2 10:36
So when we're in Leighton, we had a lot of family. Mum and Dad are from out that way. Mum's from a little place called Corel, and dad's from a little place called place called Whitten, either side of Leighton, lots of family out there. And unfortunately, when I was young, I had a sister who was very close with who was sick for a long time with cancer. So a lot of my early childhood, mum and dad spent a lot of time in Sydney for her treatment and stuff. So my other siblings and I would spend time elsewhere in the holidays with family and friends and stuff, looking after us, and I was really fortunate. I used to spend a lot of the time out on the farm with my grandparents near borrellan and of such fond memories, and learned so much out there, not so much around work ethic. I was bloody hopeless. But just love being out there and spend that time with my PA and my uncle and my grandmother and their little community out there of such fond memories. I used to, you know, even when I was older, every holidays, I reckon I'd be taking mates out to the farm. It's just easy and there's no stress. So whilst it was an unfortunate situation with my sister being sick and later passing, you know, I was really fortunate that we did have family and I was able to spend a lot of time with them on the farm personally,
Speaker 1 11:42
and I think that piece probably similar in some ways, like, love the farming side, but it is good to get out of there and then have other things happening on the side. Yeah,
Speaker 2 11:52
it was fun because I didn't do any work. I was riding motorbikes and driving vehicles and just being a pain in the like a kid is and wanting to go shooting and yabby and and all that sort of fun stuff. Like, I didn't actually do much farming. It's more of a hindrance, I'd imagine, than a help for them.
Speaker 1 12:08
The true side of farming that anyone sees when they go out for a weekend or whatnot, it's all the fun things, and not so much the everyday. Yeah,
Speaker 2 12:15
the landmark body fixing fences and stuff. But no, no thanks. You can have that
Oli Le Lievre 12:21
if we run into your school teachers. Now, how would they have described you as a school student? I feel like it's a fun, interesting question. Depends
Speaker 2 12:29
which ones you ask. I think I had a really good relationship with a lot of them, and then there was a handful that would probably not have a lot of positive stuff to say about me. I think I was a bit of a smart at times to some of them, but I think by and large, most of them, I got on well with. I certainly wasn't a really great student and didn't apply myself. And I was the one that, I was one of the kids that had tour heaps, and my report was always, you know, could do better and all that sort of stuff, but it was never anything too bad. But there's certainly a few teachers I looking back now, I gave quite a hard time too, but some of them actually deserved it. I still think that some of them deserved it. You know, I was good to that. I was good to the nice, the ones that were nice to me. I was asked to there.
Speaker 1 13:11
Did it ever rear its head when, when you're in the classroom with a few teachers going, You know what, Adam, I'm going to show you a little glimpse into what you like?
Speaker 2 13:19
Well, I was fortunate. I didn't really teach. I haven't taught with any teachers that taught me, because I've moved away and stuff. So it's probably worked out well that we didn't teach together, because there'd be some that wouldn't associate with me. I'm sure I did give someone a bit of a hard time. I certainly didn't apply myself for the HSC. I was smart enough, probably, but I was there to play footy, you know, fun with my mates and my HSC. I spent a lot of the time playing two handed Yuga with a couple mates, and that's reading the newspaper.
Unknown Speaker 13:47
Yeah, perfect. All roads lead to where you are. I
Speaker 2 13:49
certainly didn't think at that stage I was going to be a teacher, no, or have the
Speaker 1 13:53
job title to see the initial stage, as you said, it was borrowing things off family and friends. It was just trying to get something going. Was, was there a group of boys, a bunch of fellas, or something that came into your life that you thought, okay, these guys need a bit of help, and I am in a
Speaker 2 14:10
position where I can help them, in terms of going into teaching and the special notes,
Speaker 1 14:15
more into teaching, but also into the boys to the bush piece,
Speaker 2 14:18
I think not so much into teaching. I think I'd went into teaching like I always liked coaching, and like everyone, I was at older school in year 11 and 12, I coached the little kids sort of stuff. So I was always, maybe that way inclined to try and help people. And I actually had a year off after I finished school and worked in a school as a trainee or something. I just used to tag along with the rap bags. And when they play, I go and kick the footy with them and hang out with them, try and get them in a good mood, that sort of thing. So that had a lot to do with it. And the principal at the time of the school I was teaching at parks in Parkes public school, she kind of said after a while, as well as another one of my mates mums, actually, that I need to go to uni and become a teacher. You know, I was obviously they thought I could. Do it and would be okay at it. So thankfully, a couple of them pushed me into it, and I think they might have knocked down a few doors to make sure they got me in my HSC results certainly didn't get me into the university. But anyway, I got there, and I scraped through. And I think whilst I was at uni, I got some really good advice from a lecturer, Laurie Crawford, Aboriginal guy who I played footy with his young bloke whilst I was at uni, actually. And he was just a legend of a lecturer, but he spoke to me about going in and doing special needs. He said I was sort of leaning, at the time, maybe to do more of the PE in sport. And he said, mate, you're a sporty bloke. Any school, you know, in country areas, because I did primary teaching, said, any primary school you go to, you're going to be the sports teacher. Because you're sporty, you don't need to go and study it. And sort of spoke about going into special needs, and how he could say, there's going to be more and more opportunities you'll never be able to work. And I actually found those subjects really interesting. I didn't find too much at uni interesting, but the special needs subjects I really, really enjoyed. So that's kind of how I went down that way. Probably other part of going into it too was it's mainly in the more recent times, talking about my own mental health battles over the years. It's something that I've lived with my whole life, but never really addressed until more recently. And I think that had a lot to do with why I wanted to go into this field. Like a lot of people that have their own problems, tend to mask them by helping others. So I think that probably had a lot to do with it as
Speaker 1 16:30
well, with the boys to the bush. I guess building on that was why, young fellas, what were you saying? And what did you, I guess, recognise that needed fixing or a bit of help,
Speaker 2 16:39
probably a few things. Personally, I was working with a lot of young fellas. It was sort of 1415, that sort of age group, and I look back at my own like I was really fortunate, but a lot of that time I was a bit lost. I think it's it's probably for girls too, but I can only speak from my own experiences, but I think it's a time when you are really genuinely lost, and you're trying to find yourself. And for the boys I was working with, I think, you know, school's never going to be their thing, like they were rap bags and often boys that were on the way to or from juvenile justice and but I think the education system, the way it was or is set up, just isn't for them, like they're reminded too many times of all the stuff they can't do and will probably never be able to do or want to do. And I could just see with some of the simple stuff that we were doing with them, like you can build their confidence, and I rapport with them really easily by creating opportunities for them to do some positive and get some pats on the back. And, you know, I get a kick out of that. You know, it's people always wrap us and tell us how amazing we all are for what we're doing. But there's a selfish side to it too. Like we enjoy doing it. It's good for us. So I wouldn't be doing any of it if it wasn't good for me personally. And so I think there's something in that that I could see these boys were genuinely engaged with me, like at the other staff that were helping out some of our programmes and started getting some of them into employment. And it wasn't getting them jobs and trades and stuff was really rewarding, but that was all based on my connections and blokes I played footy with, and whatever I'd say, I've got a young fellow. He's a bit rough around the edges. You know, he might let you down a bit, but I reckon you'll be a good worker and and they give him a crack. And it's just that old school way of how people get jobs. They'd have the worst resume. They would have even had a resume those kids, but they would have, if they did, it'd be a ounce resume. There'd be nothing in it. But it was good being able to vouch for them and find real people that understood them, that would give them a chance. I guess
Oli Le Lievre 18:36
it's amazing what like a little bit of belief can do for people, isn't it, no matter what stage you're in, but having that belief of someone external to you can be so empowering.
Speaker 2 18:45
Yeah, absolutely. 100% these kids, whilst we build a good rapport, you know, when I was teaching and in this it's not easy building that rapport. It's bloody hard work. It's not for everyone. You could have a thick skin, because often these kids will do everything they can to get you to off. You know, they they've been let down a million times by the system or by people in their lives, and they don't want to board your relationship with anyone just to be let down again. So what they often do is try and rip the band aid off straight away, and they call you every name under the sun and make threats, and all of us have, I suppose, but threatened to be killed and effing fat this and that, and we've coped a lot, you know. But understand that they don't mean anything by they don't know yet, so And once they realise you go nowhere and that you genuinely do have their best interests in mind, they become your most loyal, you know. And they do anything for you, and they trust you and trust our judgement, because we'll also tell them when something's a bad idea. You know, if they come to us and say, Oh, my teacher reckons I should do this, or the coppers reckon I should do that, if we don't think it's in their best interest, we'll tell them, no worry about it. But most of the time, it's trying to encourage them to do take up opportunities that are good for them.
Oli Le Lievre 19:57
And you talk a little bit about. Where the system has maybe fallen over in the past, but just who are the types of kids that you guys are getting in and that you're dealing with with
Speaker 2 20:07
boys of the bush now it's still like depends on the programmes, but if I talk about our intensive programmes, which is our bread and butter, our mentoring, our camps, that sort of thing, we get a lot of kids from out of home care, so they, I guess old school term for it would have been wards of the state or that sort of thing. A good number of kids from good families that the kids might have disabilities or impairments, a lot of social anxiety, that sort of thing. Because our programmes are so individualised, we sort of can work with any kids. But I think one thing a lot of the kids have in common in the intensive programmes is trauma, and probably the level of trauma is quite astounding that most people don't understand the stuff that's happening in these beautiful communities that we all live in and we're all part of. There is horrific stuff that goes on. A lot of us think about the rap band kids, or the tough kids in our communities, about the naughty kid at school and that sort of thing that can be true, but a lot of those kids aren't accessing school. We deal with kids that haven't left their room in years or have witnessed siblings being murdered. They've been kept in a cage or chained up for six months with dogs or all sorts of stuff, and it's too prevalent. So we've never said no to a kid. We give every kid more chances than I was going to say than we should, but no, they deserve all the chances we give them. But I think why what we're doing is working is it's just bloody simple. We don't have any preconceived ideas on the kids or their background. We just deal with them, build a connection, and then go from there. And what
Oli Le Lievre 21:39
does it look like, kind of on the other side, once they've come into the programme and they spend a bit of time with you guys, do they head off, or do they stay pretty involved
Speaker 2 21:47
at the moment, because we're still new. Some of those kids would come on our first camp seven years ago. They're now, like, 20, and they're still either working for us now, or they're still part of a programme, or they're still certainly part of our lives. A lot of those kids, it varies, but the majority of the kids, over three quarters of the kids that come into an intensive programme remain with us ongoing, and now that's where we see our job. We keep creating new programmes, depending upon its stage of life, and right now we're trying to work on and creating our own social enterprise so we can support them into employment properly. We can get them jobs. That's easy. I had a meeting with a minister last year who gave us some funding a while back, and he said, I'd be great if you could come in and tell me next year you got 200 kids a job. And I said, Man, I can do that next week. You know, like getting them the jobs is easy. I'd rather come back in 12 months and say we've got six kids a job, and six kids are still in a job, because every guy and girl and every person I know, if I presented to them an opportunity to give a kid a crack, they will in a job. But if we just leave them to do it on their own, it'll fall down. And again, all that decision making is with the kids in mind. And again, if we're going to set them up in something like we need to set them up some works and their success. And again, they're not let down. So there's still work to do in that space, but that's something we're really conscious of, and we're pretty far down the road there. But our hope is to be able to employ some kids as they come through our programmes in our own social enterprise for a period of time, upskill them, get them into some different opportunities locally for potential future employment, and then kind of release them when they don't need us. We joke about all the time, but our goal is to become redundant. We don't want them to want us or need us, but we're a long way off that just yet. And with your programmes,
Speaker 1 23:31
what does it look like? Is it like really outdoors? Obviously, boys to the bush. Is it into rural communities, or is it into the actual like outdoors.
Speaker 2 23:41
So the name come about when we would run our camps basically. And our camps are out on farms. They're pretty bloody boring camps, to be honest. They're not feeling that at high adventure type camps, there's, there's lots of those out there that are great. Ours are more they do a bit of work. If they're playing up, they probably won't have a great time, because if they're doing a bit of work and behaving and getting along with each other, then, you know, we do fun stuff, kind of like you do with your own kids. If you're camping, you know, they're harassing, annoyed. Yeah, you're probably not going to be as inclined to do fun stuff with them. So that's kind of where the bush part of it come but mentoring is our bread and butter. That's That's 80 90% of our time is spent on mentoring kids, and that's our communities. That's that's where the community do all the work, essentially, like we engage with them and take as long as it takes to build that good rapport, but once we've got that, then we kind of just use everything that's in our amazing communities to make the magic happen. And often, a lot of that's getting out on farms, and I'd say helping farmers, but that help is sort of a loose term with when we get out there, you know, if you're marking lambs and your bloody sheep are going everywhere when you let the kids go, but if a kid says that they're interested in doing mechanics, well, we probably don't have the skill set to teach that, but we'll lean on the local mechanic and we'll go in there and. He'll show them some stuff, and great if they learn some skills off the farmer or the mechanic or the baker or wherever it is we take them. But that's kind of secondary, like for us. It's another opportunity to introduce a good person from their community, and that models the sort of behaviours we want these kids to exhibit. So that's kind of our motivation, mainly for getting these kids into the community and meeting everyone is just to show them what a new normal might look normal might look like.
Speaker 1 25:23
And you mentioned just before, like helping the farmers, and although it might be helping in like the sheep yards, when we spoke the other day, you talked about a story where you truly hadn't helped the farmer through this experience. Can you reshare that story? Yeah,
Speaker 2 25:35
absolutely. So. As a result of not only this story, but a number of these kind of stories that we're hearing back from we've actually recently changed the whole purpose of our organisation. It used to be about creating better men, and that's 100% what we'll always do. But our true purpose now, it's what we've found, is that we're doing all that. We're actually connecting communities and having such positive outcomes for the whole communities. The kids are just, I guess, the vehicle to us, accessing the community and helping the community. But the story I think I shared the other day was I spoken at events last year out in Griffith, and a farmer came up to me, and as generally happens, they say, you know, if you've got any young fellas, I want to come out to my farm. Gate's always open. Here's my contact details, and that was about it. So I passed on the details to our staff member out there that was working with the kids out around leedham and Griffith. And unbeknownst to me, they started taking the young fella out there to this blokes farm. I think it was out near carathul. The young fellow might have been out around, Hey, young Aboriginal boy. Anyway, I started going out there one day a week with the mentor and just doing a bit of fishing and doing a bit of farming again, so that loosely, but hanging out at the farm. And anyway, I was talking to a staff member only around Christmas time last year, and I said, What happened to that young well? And he said, Oh, he ended up going out there three days a week because he wasn't going to school. The farmer and his wife sort of organised it with his grandmother who was raising him, so he was actually going out and spending three or four days a week out on the farm and helping the farmer. And I was, oh, that's magic. And as it turns out, the kid was coming to high school this year, and the farmers offered to now pay for his boarding and tuition at a top boarding school in Sydney if he wants to take that opportunity up, which was a massive financial commitment. But beyond that, he said, you know, the kids always gonna have a job with me. And I was just like, how amazing is that? Anyway, the farmer's wife's actually contacted us and having a chat, and sort of indicated that having the young fella go out there on the farm, whatever the arrangement was, two or three days a week, she said, as 100% saved her husband's life. It's given him purpose. His boys have moved off the farm and aren't likely to come back and for her husband to have, the young fella, I think her words were, the young fella come and sit in the ute and listen to his jokes and open the gate and let him drive off on him and play pranks on the little fella and all that sort of nice stuff. She said, it's 100% safe. It's life like I was concerned about him, but now he has purpose again. So we get some of those stories come back to us regularly, whether it's there's a couple of farmers in the same boat. Actually, we've spoke to the farmers wives, but tradies and other community groups that are now engaged with us and the kids. It's really powerful. It's, I'd love to say, we set out to do this strategically, but we're certainly not clever enough to have done that. But it is what's happened now, and it's what we'll continue to do is use the community to help the community,
Speaker 1 28:23
and it's so much bigger like than just the boys part, isn't it? When you do see that full cycle of any community, that's right. And
Speaker 2 28:30
look, we had all to do with that whole sort of scenario. All we did was introduce the two and they took it from there. So I'm sure there's plenty of other stories out there and sort of organic relationships that have been built from some of our introductions. And we may never know, but it's certainly nice when you do hear some of those nice things that do occur. We got an only today, an email come through from a parent of a kid in Wangaratta in Victoria, just saying, Hey, I just wanted to thank you guys for everything you've done. With my son, but I don't know where we'd be without that sort of support. And we're travelling. We've decided to take six months off and travel around Australia or something. Can we put a voice for the bush sign on our car to say thanks and nice when you get those little reminders that we are having a big impact on the kids and, in turn, their families and the wider community?
Oli Le Lievre 29:19
Yeah, absolutely. And I guess we got connected in through Rabobank. So you are getting the eyes and support of a few businesses. Are you guys really relying on that support of, I'll say, the business world and donors? Or how does the funding work for you guys?
Speaker 2 29:34
Yeah, we are, to some extent. We're different to a lot of other charities in this space. In the our business model, we don't rely on any sort of funding directly to keep us sustainable in the communities that we're already set up in. Most of our programmes are fee for service, so majority of these kids have to pay for the programmes using funds that are attached to them because of their level of data. So indirectly, it's government funding, but where we're trying to focus a lot our time and. Attention now is generating support from corporate and philanthropics and maybe government to help us expand. So we require seed funding to set up in a new community. Once we set up in a new community, that community looks after itself in that our fee for service and then local fundraising, local sponsorship. So for example, Rabobank gave us a seed funding to set up in Wagga, Wagga recently, so we don't go back to Rabobank saying, Hey, can we some more money to help us in Wagga? That's up to us and Wagga community to make that happen. So they'll do events and small level sponsorship and that sort of stuff to keep things ticking along and everything there. But if someone tips in a heap of cash in Wagga. That's great for Wagga Boyz to the bush. It doesn't sort of go anywhere else to boys to the bush. So and the other area that we're sort of seeking funding to support is often, if we do a really good job with the kids, the kids will lose their funding. So if they stop going to jail and start going to school and stop being homeless and are in a secure have a secure housing arrangement and things like that, they'll often lose their funding, which is a bit backwards to me. So we're trying to secure more and more funding so we can continue to support kids that don't have funding at all or lose their funding. Because there is a whole heap of kids that we're letting down at the moment that because they don't have a disability or an impairment, because they're not in out of home care, because they're not going to jail that sort of stuff. They don't attract government funds to use our programmes. So we want to be able to create a bit of a way that we can support any kid that needs support. So lots of single mums and single grandmothers, unfortunately reaching out to us for our supports, and if they're doing a really good job and they're getting to school and staying out of trouble, out of trouble and that sort of thing, then often we can't help them. But it's not to say we shouldn't move that kind of breaks your heart when you can't help those kids. Yeah,
Oli Le Lievre 31:50
it's interesting, isn't it? Yeah, with, I guess, the different listeners of the podcast and our community as well. Is there something that you guys are really looking for now, or you want to put out that you guys are trying to get help on, or something that you'd love people to reach out to if they've got ideas or whatever it might be. Yeah. Look,
Speaker 2 32:06
we're always open to ideas. And at all levels, we always sort of put it back on people in our communities or in general, to tell us what they can do to help us. So at a local level, farmers can open up their gates and let us come out and access their properties. And we've got a plethora of properties that we can access. Ideally down the track, we'd love to acquire our own little blocks of Bush blocks that we can make our own for the kids kind of thing. That's like a long term goal, to get some little bush blocks around the place that we can camp on and do some things on. But I guess, and if any of your listeners, people among their networks that they can introduce us to that might be able to support with that larger seed funding type thing. And we're not trying to get big for the sake of getting big. That's probably important to point out. I think I'm forever being reminded that don't get too big too quick, and all that sort of thing, which I'm well aware of. And for us, we want to get bigger, because what we do works, and I truly think it would be selfish if we did try and share it with more communities. We set up in five new communities last last year, and they're all going really well. We're aiming to set up in another four next financial year. But at the moment, we don't have seed funding for any of those. They are hopeful of acquiring some funds through different means. But if there's anyone out there that's got ideas or introductions they can make. There's people that can make donations. All that stuff's on our website, always happy to come and talk at events and spread the word. Something always comes from these types of conversations or presentations. So I've never been really good at actually saying what we need and asking for what we genuinely need. But I guess they money and exposure helps us grow and increase our impacts. And we've got a sort of a broader strategic plan now that we know we're going to continue to do ourselves around regional areas, and no doubt we'll get across Australia again. We don't really need to, but we should be planning for that, because it bloody works, and we help other services and organisations work better as well in our community. So,
Speaker 1 34:01
mate, well, I think the work you guys are doing is so interesting and so important, and I think since I was made aware of it, probably six months ago or so, had a bit of a squeeze, but it is really remarkable, and I think it is passionate people like yourself that really are going to create that change and better opportunities. So thank you so much for sitting down having a chat. No stress
Speaker 2 34:20
at all, mate. Really appreciate your time, and look forward to seeing if you can get a decent yarn out of this.
Oli Le Lievre 34:29
Well, that's it for another episode from us here at humans of agriculture. We hope you're enjoying these podcasts and well, if you're not, let us know. Hit us up at Hello at humans of agriculture.com get in touch with any guest recommendations, topics or things you'd like us to talk and get curious about. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Rate, Subscribe, review it. Any feedback is absolutely awesome, and we really do welcome it. So look after yourselves. Stay safe, stay sane. We'll see you next time. Slate, up you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai