Cassie's Story | Youth Insearch

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Mon, 31/07/2017 - 16:27

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Newsletter, Stories

Cassie participated in her first Youth Insearch program when she was 16 years old after a friend had recommended it. After working hard achieving goals and overcoming her personal issues Cassie attended the leadership training in 2016 and has now completed her training after graduating from a Trainee Leader to an Accredited Leader at the start of July this year.

Before Youth Insearch Cassie was struggling with the effects of being bullied at school and the mental abuse she had endured when she was younger. Because of these things, Cassie turned to drugs, alcohol, self-harming and was having suicidal thoughts – the latter two had been happening since she was 12 years old. Eventually, in result of not attending school and the little effort that Cassie was putting in she was expelled and started to attend a Literacy and Numeracy course instead. It was shortly after this that Cassie attended her first weekend workshop with Youth Insearch, which Cassie explains how she felt as, “I was extremely nervous my first camp but everyone was so welcoming and heart-warming.” When asked about what she thought about her future before getting involved with Youth Insearch Cassie said, “I honestly didn’t have a future before Youth Insearch.”

When reflecting on that time Cassie explains that the confidence and support that she received from the Youth Leaders and fellow participants played a central role in pushing Cassie to become a leader and helped her realize that she can do anything. Cassie also says, “I shape my own future, nobody else does” in relation to what she had learnt since participating in Youth Insearch programs.

With the wonderful team of Youth Leaders, Support Adults and other participants; Cassie has learned to look back on her past as a repetitive circle of bad decisions and choices that she made to help deal with the issues and mental abuse she had gone through. Cassie believes that the experience as a participant and the leadership training with Youth Insearch has helped her become a better person and given her the skills that would prepare her for her future endeavors. Some of these skills include being able to communicate, making herself more confident and self-loving

 

Without Youth Insearch Cassie believes she would be either homeless or dead but instead is enrolled in a Bachelor of Education degree at university where she aims to successfully complete her first year by the end of this year so she can become a high school teacher. Cassie acknowledges that Youth Insearch has helped her by boosting her confidence and by helping her realize that she is worthy of a life. As well Cassie says Youth Insearch has made her grasp the concept that she can do whatever she puts her mind to and her life-long goal is to lead a happy and healthy life while helping others to do the same.