Break Thru NAIDOC Week Celebrations – Penrith

On Friday 9th July, two Penrith DES team members joined the great list of BTPS staff that participated in the NAIDOC week celebrations. In Penrith, NAIDOC week was celebrated by the community putting on a 10.00am -3.00pm Family Fun Day and Expo.

The BTPS stall proudly advertised Penrith’s three great services - TTW, JSA and DES - as well as mentioning the links to BTPS RTO, CS and Care for Families program. Not surprisingly, the BTPS water bottles were more of a hit than the brochures advertising the different BTPS programs.

The 2010 National NAIDOC theme was 'Unsung Heroes - Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way'. The theme asserts Indigenous ownership of 'closing the gap'. The “closing the gap” theme is similar to Break Thru’s “breaking thru barriers”. So there were lots of positive conversations around breaking thru discrimination, breaking thru assumptions, breaking thru stereotypes and closing the gaps to employment especially from an indigenous perspective.

Ian Maynard, Penrith DES Manager was interviewed live on Koori radio and amongst highlighting BTPS holistic approach to employment, Break Thru’s local JSA indigenous contract also got a mention.

A highlight of the day was the ease in which networking took place, It was wonderful for BTPS to connect with other services and hear the success stories of their contribution to the social needs of the Penrith valley community.