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Getting out and active before summers gone! < Back Ending the Summer with a Sports Clinic Jasper Menor 23 Jan 2025 Getting out and active before summers gone! As the school holidays come to a close and we wrap up Huddle Holidays, we close it out with a super Sports Clinic featuring Aussie Rules Football, juggling skills, basketball and soccer. Our facilitators did such a wonderful job keeping everyone engaged and giving each participant the support they needed to get involved. Juggling is a lot trickier than it looks. We had fun for the whole family. Thanks to Walking Football 4 Health Victoria, parents joined in the action with a battle for the ages; young participants versus the parents. It was the perfect way to get everyone involved and keep the energy all day long. What a great way to conclude Huddle Holidays this summer with an activity that got everyone in the family moving. This definitely won't be the last! Thank you to our partners: Department of Education and Training (DET), Community Bank Seddon, City of Melbourne, Wyndham City Council and The Y for making the Huddle Holidays possible. Previous Next

< Back Official Launch for GOAL! Motorsport Australia A STEM education initiative designed to bring the excitement of Motorsport into classrooms across the country. David Middlemast Previous Next

Two years of NBA Math Hoops with St. Damian's Primary School < Back NBA Math Hoops at St. Damian's Primary School! Previous Next

Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club partnership with The Huddle < Back 2023 Huddle Holidays Summer Ruth Game 22 Feb 2023 Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club partnership with The Huddle Over 300 young people and their families across the City of Melbourne, Moonee Valley City Council and Wyndham City Council have participated in The Huddle Anglesea Surf Trip since 2018. This full day event is in partnership with the Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club (ASLSC) and provides young people, their parents, and caregivers the opportunity to participate in a day safely and supportively at the beach. This event would not run successfully without the full support and in-kind assistance from the ASLSC including providing The Huddle access to their venue, a volunteer to cook lunch, and a 1:3 ratio of nippers to keep everyone safe in the water. The Anglesea Surf Trip is the most anticipated activity within the Huddle Holidays calendar thanks to the generous and authentic contribution of ASLSC. It's a pleasure to have The Huddle come to Anglesea. I've helped for many years now with my sister. It's nice to see familiar faces. - Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club volunteer The Anglesea Surf Trip unites families to participate in a quintessential Australian Summer activity – swimming at the beach. Numerous parents have declared their hesitation or inability to travel to Anglesea, so this activity allows for North Melbourne community members to be driven to the beach by coach. I love this trip to the beach. I only go to local beaches and can't drive my children to Anglesea. This is their favourite Huddle activity. The ASLSC make us feel welcome every time. The volunteers are very friendly. - Parent Once at the beach, a water safety session is provided by up to 50 volunteers from ASLSC who are young people themselves. This water safety component is essential to build confidence in the water and trust with the volunteers. Participants learn about rips and how to quickly call for help or get themselves to safety when in danger. As the ratio of ASLSC volunteers to participants is 1:3, participants are supported safely in the water to take calculated risks and enjoy the surf. Additionally, volunteers from ASLSC are exceptionally friendly and excited to engage with all participants and families of The Huddle. The volunteers (ASLSC) are really nice and fun and keep us safe in the water. I get to go out deep in the waves with them. - Nine-year-old For many families in and around North Melbourne, The Huddle Anglesea Surf Trip has become an integral part of the yearly Huddle Holiday experience. Since 2018, The Huddle Anglesea Surf Trip, in partnership with the ASLSC, has welcomed over 350 young people and their families to a day at the beach. 2023 welcomed almost 60 participants, up to 50 volunteers and 10 Huddle staff for another fantastic day in the surf. I wanted to tell you that I loved going to the beach with The Huddle. It’s my first time at Anglesea and I had the best time. I really want to go again next time. I loved surfing and being in the water. - Seven-year-old Previous Next

< Back From Game Changer to Community Leader How mentorship and experience helped Moukhtar grow into a community leader. John King Previous Next

< Back Aida's Voice River Nile student's reflection on her 2 years participating in Voice Your Voice Claudie Groves Previous Next

That’s a wrap! Reliving and remembering the Summer Huddle Holidays! < Back Recapping Huddle Holidays Summer 2025 Patrick McPhee 3 Feb 2025 That’s a wrap! Reliving and remembering the Summer Huddle Holidays! That’s a wrap! Summer Huddle Holidays 2025 has come to an end, and what a massive two weeks it was! Huddle Holidays is a school holiday program offered at the end of each school term for primary and secondary school students aged 8-18. The program provides children and young people with opportunities to try new experiences, developing their skills and capacity across social inclusion, health and emotional wellbeing, leadership, education, and careers.  This year our summer programming was set between Tuesday, January 14th and Thursday, January 23rd. Over the two weeks, we fit in 4 junior activities and 2 senior ones. It was action packed! This Huddle Holidays saw our Juniors (aged 8- to 12-years-old), participate in an Arts and Craft Day, a trip to Anglesea Beach, a visit at the Australian Sports Museum and a Multi-Sport Clinic. As the first of our four sets of holiday activities in 2025, the focus was on building connections with their peers. Throughout all junior activities, our participants were placed in small groups built around their ages to promote safety and inclusion. Following the holidays, one participant acknowledged that a highlight was, “I like meeting other kids around my age and trying out new activities.” What an awesome reflection! Our first activity of the year was our Junior Summer Arts and Craft Day. Here, the participants started off by getting to know their small groups with fun icebreaker activities focused around learning names and setting up our holidays for success! Next, we broke into groups, half of the participants engaged their creative side in a choose- your-own-adventure craft space. Some young people folded paper aeroplanes, others choose to draw or colour in, but the biggest hit was beading! Young people created bracelets and necklaces, some for themselves, some for friends and some for family! One participant expressed that they “loved making friendship bracelets” and that The Huddle staff were “really lovely and helped him.” The other half of our participants embraced their active side, through playing drama games and circle activities aimed at providing the group opportunities to get active and mingle amongst the whole group. After a quick snack break, our participants switched spaces and got to try their hand at the other half! At the conclusion of the day, we launched our Huddle Hero awards. Huddle Hero prizes are a big hit here at The Huddle, and at all our events and programs we recognise participants who go above and beyond to demonstrate some amazing traits including teamwork, talking to new people and engaging fully in the activity. Our Huddle Hero awards continued throughout the Junior holiday activities. Next up for the Juniors was the annual Anglesea Beach trip. This was a massive highlight! Upon arriving at Anglesea, our participants were greeting by the amazing team at the Anglesea Surf Lifesaving Club who helped them all to squeeze into wetsuits before a session on Water Safety. From here, every participant was paired with a water safety team member to support them in the water – then it was into the waves! The Anglesea volunteers were amazing supporters for the young people on the water, encouraging them to build their confidence and helping them to surf! On reflection from this activity, The Huddle staff felt it was a record number of young people standing up on the boards and this is a credit to the amazing work by the Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club. After the water session, the participants enjoyed a BBQ lunch prepared by even more Anglesea volunteers. Many young people expressed their love for this activity, but a highlight was a participant sharing, “thank you for organising these activities, because of today I have spoken to my mum, she is going to bring me back here to hire a surfboard and continue practicing, because I had so much fun!” Returning to Anglesea each year is a special opportunity for The Huddle community to build its connection with the Surf Life Saving Club while participants develop lifelong skills in a controlled and safe environment. The Huddle wishes to thank the Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club for their ongoing support of our program! The second week of Huddle Holidays started with the Junior participants visiting the Australian Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The group started in the Game On exhibit. This fun space offered many little tasters of different sports including AFL, Netball, Soccer, Surfing, Cycling, and more! The exhibit also had other physical challenges including reflex tests and catching. Following the exhibit, the group headed into the museum which used engaging displays to share some insight into the history of many different Australian sports. Participants really enjoyed learning more about their favourite sports, and some new ones! The final junior activity was our Multi-Sport Clinic held at the North Melbourne Community Centre. Young people engaged in four sports lessons facilitated by some of our Huddle Up! Leaders. Huddle Up! is The Huddle’s sports and recreation program that runs out of multiple locations in Wyndham and Melbourne throughout school terms. Learn more about Huddle Up! Junior (5-12-years-old) and Senior (13+ years-old) here: Huddle Up! Junior - Huddle Up! Senior . In age-appropriate groups, our Juniors engaged in different hands-on activities aiming to further their interest and skills in sports such as AFL, Soccer, Basketball and even Juggling! It was clear throughout the day that this was all a lot of fun for people of all skill levels. One mother shared “My daughter is not naturally gifted with sports, but she was so motivated to win a prize for her group that it's really built up her confidence and enthusiasm for different sports.” The Multi-Sport Clinic was an exciting way to close out our Junior activities for Summer 2025 and we look forward to seeing everyone back in Autumn! Our Seniors (13- to 18-years-old) had the opportunity these holidays to enjoy a day at the Australian Open and to try their skills in a round of Bowling and Mini-Golf. One participant shared that a highlight for the holiday period was, “I get to meet new people and try out things I wouldn’t have otherwise tried”. Like the Junior program, a focus of the Senior activities was to provide opportunities to connect with new people and try new things. Our first Senior activity at the Australian Open was supported by the Australian Tennis Foundation’s Brighter Days program. Through this, the Foundation generously provided tickets for our participants to attend the tennis and hand-delivering some gift bags – talk about spoiled! The Seniors spent time watching the eventual Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner’s open training session and past winner Naomi Osaka’s round 1 match. Some participants shared that this was their first time watching the tennis and the group spent some of the day’s downtime getting to know each other while teaching each other the rules of the game. It was a hit! The other Senior activity was Bowling and Mini-Golf at Strike in Point Cook. Bowling and Mini-Golf set the scene for the competitions on the day, but the real winner was a day spent in teams, providing the opportunity to meet and connect with people they otherwise wouldn’t. One participant stated, “I liked how inclusive everyone was, it felt good to know that you will always have fun no matter who you are with.” We love to hear it! Thanks to our participants, their families, activity providers and partners – Victorian Department of Education and Bendigo Bank Seddon. We couldn’t have this much fun without you! Watch the highlight recap of the Summer Huddle Holidays HERE. Huddle Holidays will return in April 2025 with an all-new, exciting range of activities across both Junior and Senior age groups. If you would like any further information or to join our email list so you can be notified when we launch registrations, please email huddle@nmfc.com.au .  Previous Next

The Huddle is beginning a new series to shout out the Local Legends in our community < Back The Huddle thanks Local Legends Riley Goodwin 19 Oct 2021 The Huddle is beginning a new series to shout out the Local Legends in our community Pictured: Yasseen Musa and Khalil Ali Khalil The Huddle is beginning a new series to shout out the Local Legends in our community. This could be individuals and or groups in the community that are doing amazing work, especially during the pandemic. This week’s Local Legends are the wonderful people at the Eritrean Jeberti Community in Australia Inc (EJCA). The Eritrean Jeberti Community in Australia Inc was established in 2016 by experienced members of the community, to help newly arrived refugees and migrants from Eritrean background and other African countries to smoothly integrate with the wider Australian Community. The group helps new arrivals with the necessary settlement needs, such as housing, banking, Medicare, Centrelink, enrolling in English courses and more. To fill their vision and mission, the EJCA communicate and build a good relationship with government departments and organisations such as Victoria Police, sporting clubs, Co-Health, Salvation Army and The Huddle. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the EJCA organisation worked hard to spread awareness among its community members. When the virus broke out in the North Melbourne and Flemington housing towers, they were one of the first to arrive to assist the residents. The group has held several information sessions in English and Tigrinya and post information in WhatsApp groups and their Facebook pages to spread the awareness and provide updates on COVID-19, and to help the community get vaccinated against it to protect themselves and their families. During lockdowns, the EJCA distributed four rounds of culturally appropriate food, reaching more than 300 households. Each bag included an information sheet about the COVID-19 vaccinations in three different languages - English, Tigrigna, and Arabic. Thanks to Local Legends such as the EJCA, the community they work with have been able to receive the tools and resources required to navigate through the pandemic and beyond. Previous Next

Joining the Flemington Education Plan Strategic Advisory Group < Back Students find their True North Joshua Raymer 6 June 2023 Joining the Flemington Education Plan Strategic Advisory Group During Term 2 of this year, The Huddle delivered multiple True North programs at three schools located in Flemington to help improve students’ capacity to succeed, aligning with the goals of the Flemington Education Plan . The goal of this plan is to aid “…the Flemington community in having high-quality, seamless education from birth that fosters positive health and wellbeing and the capacity to succeed.” True North, in a similar vein, helps students to develop an understanding of how their values and attributes shape their identity and future pathways. Early in 2023, The Huddle met with the Department of Education to discuss the Flemington Education Plan, and the opportunities available for The Huddle to collaborate with Debney Meadows Primary School, Flemington Primary School, and Mount Alexander College. Following this meeting, the three schools then joined and participated in The Huddle’s True North program. Students were empowered to discover who they are, and explored themes such as identity, values, persistence, social connection, and mindset, amongst others. The free program allowed students to learn more about themselves and one another, while providing teachers with an opportunity to observe their students with a different lens and approach to learning. The Huddle is no stranger to students from Mount Alexander College, Flemington Primary School, and Debney Meadows Primary School. For many years, The Huddle has delivered True North and Voice Your Voice to these students and has strengthened the relationship between The Huddle and these schools. The success of Huddle programs within the Flemington area is evident from the feedback from both students and educators alike. “Student engagement levels were high, and True North provided lots of opportunities for students to reflect.” – Year 5/6 teacher, Flemington Primary School. “The facilitator was attentive to student engagement, kind, and patient, and kept pulling students back to the purpose of the task. The tasks were engaging for the students and were targeted strongly towards the curriculum. As a teacher, I was able to find out more about the students, as I could observe them from a different perspective. - Year 5/6 teacher, Flemington Primary School Following the successful delivery of True North at DMPS, FPS and MAC, The Huddle has now joined the Flemington Education Plan Strategic Advisory Group. The Huddle is also working closely with the Department of Education and Flemington-based schools to deliver additional Huddle programs such as Game Day, GOAL!, Math Hoops and more, with an aim of further enhancing educational opportunities for Flemington-based learners. If you would like to find out more about how to get your school involved in True North and other Huddle programs, please click here . Previous Next

Celebrating Sagalee Omer's awards and recognition at the Multicultural Youth Awards 2024. < Back Congratulations Sagelee Omer and Shooters Shoot! Cassandra Hadson 9 Oct 2024 Celebrating Sagalee Omer's awards and recognition at the Multicultural Youth Awards 2024. The Multicultural Youth Awards 2024 took centre stage at Victoria’s Parliament House on October 5, celebrating the remarkable achievements of young multicultural leaders from across Victoria. A standout of the evening was Sagalee Omer, honored as both the Entrepreneur of the Year and recipient of the Australian Minister for Youth’s Award. As a co-founder of the charity basketball organisation Shooters Shoot, Omer has played a pivotal role in raising over $66,000 to support youth in the community. Over the past year, The Huddle has collaborated with Shooters Shoot to support charity basketball tournaments that provide vital funds for young people's physical and mental wellbeing. These initiatives have directly funded psychological and therapy appointments, as well as purchased bicycles to encourage physical activity. This partnership exemplifies Shooters Shoot’s commitment to understanding the crucial link between physical and mental health, and the importance of supporting young people at every stage of their mental health journey. Congratulations, Sagalee, on your hard work and the incredible impact you are making in our communities! Previous Next

< Back Welcome To AFL - Session 3 Round 22 v Essendon Previous Next

A wrap up of some of our key accomplishments for this year. < Back The Huddle's 2023 Previous Next