BACKTRACK founder Bernie Shakeshaft will be taking up a once in a lifetime opportunity to discover better ways of funding programs for at risk youths.
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Mr Shakeshaft has won a Churchill Fellowship, which will allow him to travel to the US and Canada next year to explore funding and program models of their youth programs and bring new ideas back to Armidale.
“I am humbled and greatly appreciative for this opportunity,” Mr Shakeshaft said yesterday.
“I want to get the most out of the experience, both for Armidale and for youth in the district.” Next July he will head overseas for seven weeks, spending time at a boarding school for disadvantaged youth in Texas.
He will then travel to Canada to investigate innovative youth programs in Halifax, the delivery of programs to remote indigenous communities and look at funding solutions from the programs. While he is there he will also attend an international suicide prevention conference.
Mr Shakeshaft said the trip would help BackTrack learn how to do things differently in the future, especially when it comes to funding.
“Any organisation solely dependent on governments are at risk as funding becomes harder and harder to access,” he said.
