Volunteer John Revalde recognised for his dedication and hard work at Lithgow PCYC

Having moved to Lithgow from Sydney straight after high school in 2017, John found himself lacking a sense of purpose.

"I didn't want to go to university and found that school didn't really highlight any other options, but I found myself volunteering at the PCYC and I really enjoyed it," he said.

"I just spent my time here and kept finding ways to get more involved, so then I got qualified and everything fell into place."

While John is now a paid member of the Lithgow PCYC he also volunteers a lot of his spare time to helping the club where needed.

John helps run two programs with young boys in year nine and 10 from Lithgow High School.

The Thursday program, called 'Fit for Change' sees John volunteer to run a fitness program for the students.

"A youth police officer connects the kids with us, and they may be students who are a bit disengaged with school and need more structure," Club manager Lara Martin said.

The program which takes place during school hours also has the police go through different modules with the students, focusing on topics such as resilience.

"It is about having these conversation when they are on the right side of the law and they can be mentored before they are forced to have that conversation," Ms Martin said.

The Friday program called 'Fit for Life' is where John picks up the school boys around 6 or 7am and brings them back to the PCYC for morning fitness, working on strength and endurance.

"We make them compete against each other and encourage the boys to get out of their comfort zones," he said.

"It's not that they are necessarily bad students, it's that they don't have the social skills or friendships to keep them on the right track."

After fitness the PCYC will supply them with breakfast and they can all mingle and have a chat before John drops them off to school.

Both days see's a mix of students, but majority attend both the Thursday and Friday program.

"Thursday's program is more education oriented but the main goal is just to help youth at risk who have social, socio-economic issues or are not doing well school," John said.

"We try to help them so they know they've got a support network and we try to provide a way for them to get motivated."

The students need to attend school as part of the criteria, but Ms Martin said it was good for the kids to have somewhere to go.

READ MORE:

"Being active in the morning has proven that the students are more motivated for school and it gets some of that pent up energy out first thing," she said.

John said he puts them through the beep test.

"I participate too, you've got to get down on their level, of course you show them who is in charge but you also treat them as equal and make them comfortable with you without them running loose," he said.

John didn't set out to volunteer with these two programs but has now been doing them for a couple of years.

"I was asked if I wanted to help out with a program and I had some spare time so I said yes, at first it was hard to do the 6am starts but I thought I had to see this through because I felt like I had a duty to these kids," he said.

"Most of them have done the program for three years so I've been able to see them grow and see the changes.

"There is a satisfaction that I've helped improve them in some way, of course it might not be life changing but hopefully I've been able to be something positive in their lives."

When asked what his favourite program to do was he said it was the 'Fit for Life' program.

"Even though it is hard to get out of bed that early, I do enjoy it because I can hang out with these boys, do some sport and have fun," he said.

Another program Lithgow PCYC runs is the Blue Star program which gives young people aged 16 and over the opportunity to learn new skills, increase their opportunities for employment and make new friends.

It has two components, citizenship and leadership.

"The main idea is to teach kids to get involved in their community, and they can volunteer with the PCYC or in the community," John said.

"Leadership is the core of the program and there are more challenges, so you have to make a contribution to the PCYC and you will do a presentation to the CEO about a new activity for the club or a way to improve the business."

It also contributes to the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award and allows the participants to go camping.

"It is a really good activity for young people and you can get certification of active volunteering with PCYC, you really benefit a lot from the first part of the program," he said.

The program runs every year during the school holidays and the PCYC always put out expressions of interest. It normally takes place at the beginning of the year and then the school holidays after that.

John also spends his time volunteering to clean the gym room, practise his own skills, running the gymnastic and parkour classes, running birthday parties and doing anything he can to contribute to the club.

"I am here Monday to Friday, but I'm on call whenever they need me," he said.

John also runs the parkour and gymnastic classes throughout the week and hosts gymnastics birthday parties.

"Everyone loves those classes and parties and we have a range of ages and girls and boys participating," Ms Martin said.

Other programs Lithgow PCYC runs is judo, karate, OOSH, vacation and after school care as well as the Safe Driver Program and the Traffic Intervention Program.

"Our Christmas our activities were fully booked and we did plenty of different holiday activities including arts and crafts, STEM and more," Ms Martin said.

Lithgow PCYC has a new website so that residents can see what is on offer, what is fully booked, term prices and gives the opportunity to book for events in advance.

"We couldn't do all of this without people like John, who give their time to help the community, and we are always looking for more volunteers," she said.

If you would like to become a member, volunteer or want to see what is on offer you can do so at www.pcycnsw.org.au/lithgow.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: