Parent Info
Dear Green Room Parents,
I am writing to inform you of an exciting new opportunity available to all attendees of the Green Room program aged 12-18.
As you may be aware, the Green Room is co-led by students from CSALT Academy. CSALT Academy is the official training initiative of Christian Surfers Australia, which is the organisation that runs the Green Room and many programs like it around the country.
As a key part of the students' training, they are required to participate in a placement that puts them in a position of mentoring and coaching teens and young adults. Historically, we have done this with a more informal structure; however, in moving both programs forward, we want to maximise firstly our attendees' opportunity for good role models, mentoring, and coaching, and also our students' youth work experience.
For this reason, we are hoping to implement a voluntary mentoring program within the wider program of the Green Room. We are calling this our Green Room ‘Surf Caddy’ program. The idea is that a caddy carries an athlete's golf clubs, surfboard, etc., often providing input as to which club or board to use for certain conditions. In the youth engagement setting, our ‘Surf Caddies’ help carry our young people, giving gentle guidance and support when necessary. The format of this is very simple:
1. In groups of two, our students (Surf Caddies) are allocated 1 young Green room attendee (which we are calling buddies). That’s 2 students to 1 young person.
2. The Caddies engage in 4 formal support opportunities with their buddy in helping them to set goals (these could be anything from their studies to their surfing), navigate current challenges they may be facing (appropriately, of course, with good supervision), and sharing their own life experiences to encourage their buddy. This will be done in a group setting during our fortnight of small groups.
3. The caddies will engage in ongoing informal support, which already happens naturally at the ‘All in’ fortnight of Green Room activities. This looks like encouraging them in the surf, engaging them in the activities, and also sharing positive messages of a spiritual nature (This is usually just one of our students or leaders to the whole group).
4. As the Surf Caddy program is contributing to our students' accredited study, their youth work practice with the young attendees will be closely supervised by the current Green Room key leaders, with a final sign-off from myself. All documentation necessary for students to complete their assessment will be found in the ‘Surf Church’ app, where both students and the key leaders provide feedback around their observations of the experience. Parents are welcome to view these documents, which are assessment tools. All information is completely confidential and housed in secure applications.
For those aware of the way our Green Room program runs, there is not much that really changes other than formalizing the mentoring relationships that may already exist and being more deliberate about the times with the small groups in Caddies checking in with Buddies (this will often be done as a group).
As a parent, I know the importance of ensuring that my children are safe, and sadly, across history, there have been moments where not-for-profits, churches, or charity organizations, although with good intentions, have let the wider community down around child safety. For this reason, I wish to share our strategy for overall child safety at the Green Room and specifically with our Surf Caddy program.
1. Everyone who leads at the Green Room or is involved in our Surf Caddy program has engaged in the official leadership process of Christian Surfers Australia. This includes signing our CSA child safe policy, code of conduct, and completing the current Australian standard child safe training. All leaders must also have an up-to-date ‘working with children’s check’.
2. Christian Surfers Australia and the Green Room have strict policies on how our leaders interact with attendees under 18. At no point are our leaders alone one-on-one with a child or driving them without a second leader present. As a policy, our leaders do not give out their private phone numbers or information to the Green Room Young attendees. This will be the case with the Surf Caddy program.
3. Should the caddy wish to communicate with the buddy, they will be able to do so within the Surf Church app’s messaging function, but this will be in a group message context with either parent (if they wish to be included), the supervising key leaders, and both Caddies overseeing the 1 buddy.
4. At no time will your child be alone with their Surf caddy? Because we are using the current environment that already exists at Green Room. Caddies will all come in pairs of two and will always be in the line of sight of their supervising key leader.
5. All of our Surf Caddies are currently in official training around working alongside children in a mentoring and coaching setting. This training is through the teaching of the following units that are part of the CSALT curriculum accredited by Alphacrucis College: ‘Discipleship 1 and 2 Pastoral care, and Leading Teams’. Our expectations on engagement with the buddies are at an appropriate level based on the students' training and experience. So, if anything that is beyond their ability to navigate comes up, this will be handled by a senior leader, most likely myself.
Just including a few points to consider around this new program:
1. It is new, and so we are pioneering this into the Green Room space as we truly believe it will benefit firstly our young attendees and secondly, our students in giving them invaluable experience in caring for others. We are asking you the parents to partner with us and continue to provide feedback as to your ideas and perspectives on the Surf Caddy initiative.
2. The Surf Caddy program is completely optional and voluntary, and we are working very hard for it not to in any way detract from the current Green Room program that exists so there is no sense of any young attendees feeling left out. If this issue ever arises from your perspective, I would like to be notified.
3. The students' training and accreditation are delivered out of a Christian worldview, so some of the language and questions that drive conversations will be in alignment with this perspective. This very much goes for the whole program of the Green Room. In saying this, we are very sensitive to the factor not everyone who engages the Green Room lives out of a Christian worldview, and this we certainly respect. I personally do not want this element of our program to inhibit any of the potential young attendees in participating in the Surf caddy mentoring program. If your family or your children are not from this particular belief system, we will then cater our approach sensitively so that your child can still participate and receive great role modelling and mentoring.
In summary, we would very much like to serve the youth community of Phillip Island through more intentional and deliberate connection with our fantastic young adults at CSALT and the Green Room. I personally am excited but also feel the responsibility of making this program within the program safe and beneficial for all parties. If this is something you feel your young person would benefit from and they are excited to participate, I would love to hear from you. My email is lucas@christiansurfers.org.au and my personal phone number is 0414 079 417.
Following your expression of interest, we would have you sign a permission form allowing your child to participate, and we would further connect for me to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you so much for taking the time to consider a great opportunity for your child and also for our students. I look forward to hearing from you.
Lucas Bartlett
Principal CSALT Academy
I am writing to inform you of an exciting new opportunity available to all attendees of the Green Room program aged 12-18.
As you may be aware, the Green Room is co-led by students from CSALT Academy. CSALT Academy is the official training initiative of Christian Surfers Australia, which is the organisation that runs the Green Room and many programs like it around the country.
As a key part of the students' training, they are required to participate in a placement that puts them in a position of mentoring and coaching teens and young adults. Historically, we have done this with a more informal structure; however, in moving both programs forward, we want to maximise firstly our attendees' opportunity for good role models, mentoring, and coaching, and also our students' youth work experience.
For this reason, we are hoping to implement a voluntary mentoring program within the wider program of the Green Room. We are calling this our Green Room ‘Surf Caddy’ program. The idea is that a caddy carries an athlete's golf clubs, surfboard, etc., often providing input as to which club or board to use for certain conditions. In the youth engagement setting, our ‘Surf Caddies’ help carry our young people, giving gentle guidance and support when necessary. The format of this is very simple:
1. In groups of two, our students (Surf Caddies) are allocated 1 young Green room attendee (which we are calling buddies). That’s 2 students to 1 young person.
2. The Caddies engage in 4 formal support opportunities with their buddy in helping them to set goals (these could be anything from their studies to their surfing), navigate current challenges they may be facing (appropriately, of course, with good supervision), and sharing their own life experiences to encourage their buddy. This will be done in a group setting during our fortnight of small groups.
3. The caddies will engage in ongoing informal support, which already happens naturally at the ‘All in’ fortnight of Green Room activities. This looks like encouraging them in the surf, engaging them in the activities, and also sharing positive messages of a spiritual nature (This is usually just one of our students or leaders to the whole group).
4. As the Surf Caddy program is contributing to our students' accredited study, their youth work practice with the young attendees will be closely supervised by the current Green Room key leaders, with a final sign-off from myself. All documentation necessary for students to complete their assessment will be found in the ‘Surf Church’ app, where both students and the key leaders provide feedback around their observations of the experience. Parents are welcome to view these documents, which are assessment tools. All information is completely confidential and housed in secure applications.
For those aware of the way our Green Room program runs, there is not much that really changes other than formalizing the mentoring relationships that may already exist and being more deliberate about the times with the small groups in Caddies checking in with Buddies (this will often be done as a group).
As a parent, I know the importance of ensuring that my children are safe, and sadly, across history, there have been moments where not-for-profits, churches, or charity organizations, although with good intentions, have let the wider community down around child safety. For this reason, I wish to share our strategy for overall child safety at the Green Room and specifically with our Surf Caddy program.
1. Everyone who leads at the Green Room or is involved in our Surf Caddy program has engaged in the official leadership process of Christian Surfers Australia. This includes signing our CSA child safe policy, code of conduct, and completing the current Australian standard child safe training. All leaders must also have an up-to-date ‘working with children’s check’.
2. Christian Surfers Australia and the Green Room have strict policies on how our leaders interact with attendees under 18. At no point are our leaders alone one-on-one with a child or driving them without a second leader present. As a policy, our leaders do not give out their private phone numbers or information to the Green Room Young attendees. This will be the case with the Surf Caddy program.
3. Should the caddy wish to communicate with the buddy, they will be able to do so within the Surf Church app’s messaging function, but this will be in a group message context with either parent (if they wish to be included), the supervising key leaders, and both Caddies overseeing the 1 buddy.
4. At no time will your child be alone with their Surf caddy? Because we are using the current environment that already exists at Green Room. Caddies will all come in pairs of two and will always be in the line of sight of their supervising key leader.
5. All of our Surf Caddies are currently in official training around working alongside children in a mentoring and coaching setting. This training is through the teaching of the following units that are part of the CSALT curriculum accredited by Alphacrucis College: ‘Discipleship 1 and 2 Pastoral care, and Leading Teams’. Our expectations on engagement with the buddies are at an appropriate level based on the students' training and experience. So, if anything that is beyond their ability to navigate comes up, this will be handled by a senior leader, most likely myself.
Just including a few points to consider around this new program:
1. It is new, and so we are pioneering this into the Green Room space as we truly believe it will benefit firstly our young attendees and secondly, our students in giving them invaluable experience in caring for others. We are asking you the parents to partner with us and continue to provide feedback as to your ideas and perspectives on the Surf Caddy initiative.
2. The Surf Caddy program is completely optional and voluntary, and we are working very hard for it not to in any way detract from the current Green Room program that exists so there is no sense of any young attendees feeling left out. If this issue ever arises from your perspective, I would like to be notified.
3. The students' training and accreditation are delivered out of a Christian worldview, so some of the language and questions that drive conversations will be in alignment with this perspective. This very much goes for the whole program of the Green Room. In saying this, we are very sensitive to the factor not everyone who engages the Green Room lives out of a Christian worldview, and this we certainly respect. I personally do not want this element of our program to inhibit any of the potential young attendees in participating in the Surf caddy mentoring program. If your family or your children are not from this particular belief system, we will then cater our approach sensitively so that your child can still participate and receive great role modelling and mentoring.
In summary, we would very much like to serve the youth community of Phillip Island through more intentional and deliberate connection with our fantastic young adults at CSALT and the Green Room. I personally am excited but also feel the responsibility of making this program within the program safe and beneficial for all parties. If this is something you feel your young person would benefit from and they are excited to participate, I would love to hear from you. My email is lucas@christiansurfers.org.au and my personal phone number is 0414 079 417.
Following your expression of interest, we would have you sign a permission form allowing your child to participate, and we would further connect for me to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you so much for taking the time to consider a great opportunity for your child and also for our students. I look forward to hearing from you.
Lucas Bartlett
Principal CSALT Academy
