Connecting Kids Board Game
20 January 2004 at 12:01 pm
An innovative yet controversial board game which explores adolescent risk taking behaviours called ‘Big Night Out’, has been developed by Connecting Kids Company, formerly the Peer Support Foundation in Victoria.
According to Connecting Kids Company’s Business Development Manager, Vance Hilton, ‘Big Night Out’ is about helping young people make the best choices they can in difficult situations.
Vance Hilton says ‘Big Night Out’ covers a wide range of scenarios that teenagers face, and the aim is to empower them to cope with decisions such as whether to have sex or try an illegal drug.
Hilton says it is an exciting initiative as it’s the only game of its kind in Australia, and a great resource for teachers and welfare officers to use with teenagers.
He says teenagers learn through experience, and this is the perfect way to explore different decisions and ways of dealing with situations without actually experiencing them for real.
The ‘Big Night Out board game is just one of a number of resources and programs that the new Connecting Kids Company provides to hundreds of Victorian schools.
Hilton says the reason for the change to Connecting Kids Company from the Peer Support Foundation is that the organisation encompasses such a broad range of programs, it needed an identity that fully embraces all of them.
Its unique VCE Supportive Friends Program, currently operating in over 200 secondary schools, continues to be implemented by more schools each year as awareness of stress management and depression grows.
Along with the ‘Big Night Out’ board game, a range of new programs and resources will be progressively introduced by the Connecting Kids Company in the coming months including “Brave It!” a set of three resilience posters.
First established in Victoria in 1986 through a pilot program in several Bendigo schools, the Peer Support Foundation of Victoria focuses on student wellbeing and operates in over 1300 schools.
