Page 1635 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2017
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adventure-based learning, social development, skills training, mentoring and casework, along with literacy and numeracy education. Six of the seven participants also received certificate II qualifications from the Canberra Institute of Technology.
Last month I got to meet with these young people again as I attended their graduation, along with Senator Seselja, fellow Liberal MLA Nicole Lawder, ACT Chief Police Officer Justine Saunders, and Canberra PCYC president, Jayson Hinder.
I pause here to note the tragic passing of Mr Hinder, to offer my sincere condolences to his family and to pay tribute to his lengthy record of community service in the ACT, including seven years as a PCYC board member. Many of us are grateful for his passionate support for numerous community organisations.
At the graduation event, I was thrilled to see the growth in development that had occurred in the lives of these young people over the course of their involvement with project Booyah. Their faces shone with great confidence that I had not seen in them before, and they spoke excitedly with me about future opportunities now that their lives are, in the words of one of them, back on track. I love seeing the changes that have come into their lives as they have re-engaged with family, community and education.
I pay tribute to the executive manager, Cheryl O’Donnell, and to all of the staff members at Canberra PCYC who work so hard and with so much genuine compassion to help at-risk young people. Project Booyah is just one of the many programs that these dedicated staff provide. Others include various diversion programs, respect and anger management programs, parenting programs and programs for young traffic offenders as well as after-school sports.
I congratulate the PCYC staff for instilling hope by maintaining frequent contact and providing needed encouragement to these young people. The advocacy for these vulnerable young people’s progress and development is honourable, and I am grateful for the great example of the PCYC staff.
Yom Ha Shoah
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (6.53): On 26 April I was privileged to attend a Holocaust remembrance event with the ACT Jewish community. The event was held to acknowledge Yom Ha Shoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, which fell on 24 April this year. Holocaust Remembrance Day is the day for remembering the millions of Jewish victims of the Holocaust and for honouring Jewish resistance to Nazi rule.
In 1942 the Nazi regime began systemically deporting masses of Jewish people to concentration and extermination camps. And, 75 years on, we remember the horrors that followed: the genocide of up to six million Jewish people, including approximately 1.5 million children; horrendous violence; forced labour; sex crimes; forced abortions; and the list continues; it is endless and heart breaking.
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