Dion, left, and Chaz, helped build a car which will be donated to a Caroline Springs resident, through the Hand Brake Turn organisation. 83871 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By NATALIE GALLENTI
DISADVANTAGED teenagers across Melbourne’s West are benefitting from an automotive training program which offers them the chance to gain steady and sustainable employment.
Hand Brake Turn gives at-risk young people a chance to break the negative cycle and turn their lives around by providing a hands-on learning environment.
HBT manager John Graham said the program provides 15 to 19 year olds with the right skills and self-confidence to get their lives back on track and gain imperative expertise to finding employment.
Mr Graham said most trainees are no longer able to attend mainstream education and often have nowhere else to turn, but after completing the eight-week course and gaining their Certificate 1, have a wide range of options available to them.
“It gives them a hand to break the cycle,” he said.
“There have been lots of success stories where it has changed someone’s life dramatically.”
And the wider community also benefits from the program with the vehicles worked on donated to someone in need.
The latest trainees turned an un-roadworthy Nubira wagon into an almost brand new car which will be donated to a Caroline Springs mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Mr Graham said the group relies heavily on sponsorship and receives less than half of its funding from the State Government.
Chaz Smith recently took part in the program and hoped to one day become a diesel mechanic.
The 15-year-old Werribee resident said the program had offered him a “light at the end of the tunnel” and had put him on the right path.
Chaz said not only had the program given him skills in mechanics and spray painting, but had helped him make a lot of mates who were in a similar position to him.
“I’ll miss the people. I had so much fun,” he said.
“I’m really proud of myself because I never thought I could do something like this.”
