FOGS Mentoring Programs
Mentoring is defined as the developmental relationship between a more experienced person to help a less experienced person. Here at FOGS we are currently mentoring 500 Indigenous year 11 and 12 students throughout Queensland with our “FOGS Mentoring Program” and ten students with our “Hope Vale Mentoring Program”. FOGS use incentives and rewards to keep students focused on completing set goals and eventually school.
The “FOGS Mentoring Program” incorporates students throughout Queensland, with the aim of assisting the children in completing traineeship certificates through the PASS Australia program, the FOGS encourage their completion using incentives and rewards to keep the trainees motivated. FOGS also value add to sports courses undertaken by Indigenous trainees by providing the latest information in sports programs for health, fitness and coaching; information which comes from the experiences and contacts of FOGS members, clubs and supporting institutions.
The “Hope Vale Mentoring Program” consists of ten children who have been individually selected from remote communities of Australia to better their education at Concordia Lutheran College in Toowoomba. These children are not only encouraged to maintain a high level of school attendance; FOGS assist these children to work towards greater individual goals that are self set. Together these students are responsible for not only achieving their individual goals but assisting their fellow class mates in achieving theirs too. This program incorporates both individual achievement and team work. If all ten goals are achieved by the end of semester two in the schooling calendar, the children will be rewarded with a trip to the State of Origin Three in Brisbane. Each individual goal must be achieved for the group of students to be rewarded.
In addition to developing self awareness through personal goals FOGS focuses on strengths in numbers – teamwork. Teamwork encourages the use of support networks, by lending a hand to a fellow peer in aiding them to achieve their goal. “If your in front, step back and help someone else”. This is further elucidated through the distribution of the largest rewards and incentives which are only provided if every individual achieves their goal, which reiterates FOGS main motivation teamwork.
Indigenous children are naturally gifted athletes who are interested in sport – this is a strength that has arguably been largely disassociated from education in the Indigenous context, with only a few exceptions. There are several examples of education initiatives targeting Indigenous students that use sport as a ‘hook’ to engage the students in learning. Sport underpins the entire curriculum implemented in these programs; it is used as much more than just a way to engage students. This provides a “real world” application of the educational concepts being taught to students; an application that provides a context students can quickly grasp to use as a framework to assist them learn new and sometimes challenging concepts, often after years of educational failure.
Whilst the Former Origin Greats are central to this proposal, it’s not just about Rugby League. FOGS are aware of the perception that ‘football is for boys’. To address this issue, FOGS have recently been granted a network of high profiled women in sport to incorporate in the mentoring programs, who will contribute as much support and encouragement as our male sports mentors. FOGS have already received principle support from many women including current gold medalist Emma Snowsill, current bronze medalist Emma Moffat, world number one Felicity Abrams and former Para-Olympian Karni Liddell. FOGS also have the support of Indigenous female sports icons and athletes to ensure an appropriate gender and cultural representation.
The FOGS are currently engaged in negotiations, in a continual effort to expand their current mentoring program and hopefully in the near future the inauguration of further programs.
