FORMER Silver Sands resident Nikki Wormald was rewarded for her volunteer work with Aboriginal youth at the 2018 WA Young Achiever Awards on Saturday night .
The now Burleigh Heads resident was awarded the Masonic Care WA/Freemasons WA Community Service and Volunteering Award.
The qualified social worker moved from Mandurah to Burleigh Heads to work for Queensland rehabilitation centre Lives Lived Well.
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READ NOW“I work with 15 young people with mental health and AHD issues, and participate in my program for six to twelve months,” she said.
“It’s all about reintegrating them into the community so they can look for work and study.”
Ms Wormald began volunteering at Fremantle PCYC after completing her Certificate IV in youth work.
“It was like my second home,” she said.
“I got a job there after volunteering for 18 months.”
While working at Fremantle PCYC, Ms Wormald hosted funding events in an effort to create a female services program, called Friday Night Girls program.
She successfully ran the program from 2015 to 2017.
“I noticed a need for female services in the local Fremantle area so I spoke to my boss at Fremantle PCYC to start program funding to start up a girl program,” she said.
“I organised a quiz night and raised $3500, applied for a few grant applications and accumulated $15,000 from the grant to get this program happening.
“We had 15 young indigenous girls, aged between 10 to 17, coming along every Friday night.”
The 21-year-old said she would team up with services and provide different workshops for the girls on self-esteem, drug and alcohol safety, mental health and cyber bullying.
“We even started a netball team and had a few games as well,” she said.
Ms Wormald also helped run a basketball program for young people, every Saturday night, called night hoops.
“It’s awesome to see the growth in the people I work with,” she said.
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