Megan Cardwell (Pearson)

My challenge is uncomfortable for me because...

I have been a youth worker for 4 years now, the kids who I work with are incredible, it hasn’t been easy though, I have been putting all of my energy and soul into preventing these kids from homelessness, unemployment, mental health struggles, youth crime, community disengagement and social media perception, I have a huge workload and I need community support, so I am being bold and running because I HATE running. I would rather snakes crawl on me every day for 10 days. 

I am so on board for raising money for homelessness, I see it every day in my work. My vision is to try and prevent it. My goal is to start a go fund me to raise money so I can fund workshops for the vulnerable kids in care (based of a merit type of system) I want to get these kids confident enough to sign up to a course or get into work, I want to secure artists to share wisdom and insight to kids who have little/no support or guidance. I really want to showcase artists/individuals who haven’t had it easy but put in the work on themselves and made it to where they knew they were capable of going. At 16 I was going down a really bad path, I quit school got into drugs and I knew people thought I was a lost cause. I got into a chef apprenticeship and I had a few people who believed in me and grew my confidence up, I worked hard and put my career first. I ended up working at Australia’s no. 1 restaurant in 2018, I was cooking for celebrities and incredible people with incredible stories every day, but, I knew it wasn’t the road to my destiny. I am now confident enough to share my ‘formula’ of getting through the tough times with all vulnerable kids, not just the kids I’m working with. I am proud of me and I am seeing results from the work I have put into the kids I’ve cared for.

I’m hoping my vision could also help break the stigma of kids in care- it’s not their fault they grew up in a shit environment and to a certain degree, it probably wasn’t their parents either. I honestly believe that all it takes to change a young persons outlook on themselves is to have even just one person who sees them for them and not their environment. There’s a trend going around of ‘we are kids in care, what do you expect, we are going to act up’ 

I see past this and my expectations are probably higher for these kids because I know they already have the mental grit engraved into them and I know they can do anything they put their mind to. I see so much strength, resilience and wisdom with the kids I work with, I see and I hear the kids carry the shame and guilt of their position in life.

I want to get the message across load and clear that they are capable, that they can get up and try, they aren’t just a kid in care, they are a valuable part of our community and future. If we truly valued our planet, community, economy, employment and future then we desperately need to start teaching these kids life lessons, life’s busy, technology has taken over and we aren’t putting in the effort we once did with children. 

I’m so over people saying to me- what is wrong with kids these days? Kids act up for a reason, it’s our job as adults to figure it out, and fast. I’m not confident that the system has figured this out.  

A valuable lesson in life is if you are wanting someone to ‘change’ you actually just need to look a bit deeper into what you need to work on, first. I think we need to start holding some accountability for the youth crisis right now.

I also really want to get across to these kids that social media is a perception and most of the time those lucky people have had a struggle, I forced myself to put on a brave face, until I got into youth work and learnt from these kids that it’s strong to be vulnerable. I need community help. I need Neds help 🙏 I know 50km isn’t much in 10 days but I don’t run, and never have and don’t want to. I just want to show up for the kids!