Red Dust
Our HW Community Giving platform, launched this year, allows our people to support our charity partners through regular payroll or one-off donations. One of our partners is Red Dust, which delivers health promotion programs and community development projects focused on enriching the lives, health and futures of Indigenous youth and families in remote communities. Roberto Pietrobon, Director, Partnerships and Philanthropy, spoke to us about Red Dust, its programs and its impact.
Please tell us about Red Dust
Red Dust inspires positive change in remote Indigenous communities through a unique ‘community-as-family’ model of health and well-being programs. For over 20 years, we have walked alongside community leaders and Elders to create a stronger future for youth and their families. We draw on the strengths of both western health knowledge and traditional cultural knowledge that influence young people in community. Our positive role models and engaging, high impact programs help build resilience in young people and inspire them to identify and pursue their dreams.
What impact is the work having?
Together these donations are providing youth living in remote communities access to programs like the Red Dust Healthy Living Program – a high impact school-based health and wellbeing program facilitated by positive role models with a focus on nutrition, physical activity, resilience and cultural strength.
Our programs are designed to support key outcomes with a specific focus on:
- realising identity – knowing who you are and where you fit.
- pursuing aspiration – having the confidence to dream big for yourself and your community.
- building cross-cultural competency – walking strongly in all the worlds that surround you, be they cultural, community, school, work or play.
What does the next 12 months look like for Red Dust?
To achieve our goals, the Red Dust model integrates current health knowledge and research, the expertise of Elders and community/ies through local and specific cultural elements and prioritises community-based workforces. Over the next 12 months, we will continue to rebuild to a pre-COVID level of programming with our partner communities in the Central Desert and increase programming options for partner communities in the Top End.
