As the the Club Mudgee Max Potential program enters the second half of its 2020 journey, attention now shifts to what the young adults can do for the community.
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Last Friday saw the students and coaches - joined by Club Mudgee CEO Maureen Hutchison and president Scott Fittler - reconvene for the second Connect Group.
The guest speaker was state MP Dugald Saunders, who'd watched all their Personal Expression videos in advance and gave individual feedback to each young adult. A theme of his talk was that change can create opportunities.
And at a time of significant upheaval, the local Max Potential program too had to adjust, by moving online.
One of the first time community coaches in 2020 is Ali Broinowski. She's been paired with Kandos High School student Clare and with the move to online and meeting via Zoom, change has shortened the distance between them in a sense.
And while the young adults won't be able to get out and do a Community Service Project this year, the Community Service Pitch still has the same spirit. With the students needing to come up with an idea to support the community to rebuild after COVID-19.
"It has made everyone think about the impacts that the virus has had on the community. And it was interesting listening to some of the options for the proposals, because a lot have identified the vulnerable people in the community - the elderly, frail, people with disabilities," Ali said.
"Which is nice that they've recognised that part of our community has been affected. If you are fit and well, it's not so much fun being at home but you can go for a walk - whereas if you're elderly or have other issues that's not so easy to do.
"And all of the proposals seem to address that section of the community."
Ali added that working with budding baker Clare has been a delight. And that for her, Max Potential has provided tools and skills to apply outside the program.
"Clare's amazing, she's got a lot of hidden talents but was a little bit not confident in her skills. So we set some goals together, she's expanded her Instagram profile and set some goals for school as well - which she's undertaken spectacularly," she said.
"The program is fascinating. I think that it puts a lot of structure around a lot of the things you do without realising it, in terms of what I do in a day-to-day role in my business.
"Breaking projects down into manageable pieces is probably one of my biggest take home messages, because we're all guilty of trying to do too much too soon, without stepping it out And the Max Potential framework makes you do that.
"That's been great for the young adults too, because they're getting so much done."