Cedella's Story
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Cedella attended her first weekend workshop back in August 2016 when she was 17 years of age. She has attended 6 workshops all together. Cedella was first introduced to Youth Insearch by her youth worker from another organisation. Cedella had been struggling with several issues and incidents in her life.
Cedella's mum had passed away and her dad was in and out of her life because of drug and alcohol use. Cedella was spending time going between different family members houses ever since she was a young girl. Cedella struggled with finding a place to call home as she moved around a lot, and with little to no family support she had begun to get herself in trouble by hanging around with the wrong crowd which was associated with incarceration, and she started to experiment with alcohol.
Cedella began to make changes in her life after attending her first camp. She then went on to find her own accommodation and during the time of completing high school she worked at subway to support herself to graduate Year 12 and to pay her own bills.
Whilst working at subway she completed a Certificate III in business and was nominated for a Traineeship of the Year Award. She also found a passion politics and youth work during high school and attended the Queensland Government Junior Indigenous Youth Parliament program where she was appointed to act as a Shadow Minister in a mock debate.
Cedella was about to begin her leadership through Youth Insearch when she was offered a traineeship in Hospitality through Accor Hotels to be based at The Ayers Rock Resorted. Cedella took this opportunity, and since completing thisthe course has travelled whilst working within the hospitality industry.
As youth work has been a passion of hers she successfully obtained another traineeship and is now studying a Certificate IV in youth work, working with young people that have been through similar experiences as herself in Far North Queensland.
Cedella acknowledges that it was the connections, friendships and support that she got through Youth Insearch and her support person that helped her to change the course of her life. Cedella maintains some of these strong friendships today.