My name is Clive and I am the 7^th of 10 children, I lost my father at a young age and a few years ago my older brother committed suicide. Even though I come from a close indigenous family I still had difficulty dealing with my loss.  My school attendance was poor and I had very low self esteem.

I was brought to my first Youth Insearch 3 years ago and settled in very quickly.  After my first year I decided not to put in for leadership as I thought I wasn’t ready for yet.  I was able to talk about my loss at a camp the following year which made a huge difference to how I was dealing with what had happened with my brother.  I applied for leadership that year and was accepted into the program.  Through the training I learned a lot about myself and really enjoyed the experience.

After doing work experience through the school I was offered paid work, as I was a good worker and now I have a traineeship through the Dreamtime Cultural Centre in Rockhampton.

Thanks to Youth Insearch I am now attending school, passing English and Maths, teachers have been praising me for the improvements since being involved with the program.  I have a future goal and have chosen my year 11-12 subjects that best suit these goals.  I think I have proven myself as a leader, at the last program I was busy carrying out all of the duties set out for me and I am very proud of how I handled myself.

Clive, 16 (QLD)