Youth Street is a community group that provide a safe hangout space for youth aged 6-18 where they can stay out of trouble by playing sport, doing art and making friends.

In October 2015, Kelcie Rausch from Youth Street stood up in front of our Awesome board members and told us how valuable $1,000 would be to Youth Street crew, who largely rely on donations.

Youth Street won the $1,000 grant against two other fantastic finalists.

It’s been a few months since the win, and Awesome Newcastle were interested to find out how Youth Street have been going.

We managed to get three of the busy team away from training some newbie staff for an update.

Rausch told Awesome Newcastle that she has used the grant money to purchase two soft-foam surfboards, two portable soccer goals, an arcade basketball set and art supplies.

Youth Street staff member Jesse Lee told us how much the new surf equipment has lifted the spirits of the staff and kids alike.

“The youth on our surf team feel safer and more confident out on the water with the addition of these new surfboards,” Lee says.

“We now have more boards available to youth who don’t have their own and we’ve seen an increase in amount of youth coming along to our surf team.”

Teams co-ordinator Jono Scott agreed.

“We have the arcade basketball set out during the times when the youth from all of our different teams are gathered together,” Scott explained.

“Around this one game we have seen youth step up and run competitions as well as encourage each other, challenge each other and lead other youth positively.”

Awesome Newcastle are stoked that we could help this program follow their goal to support and encourage local youth.

The Youth Street program gives a little awesome to the community – sounds good to us at Awesome Newcastle!

Rausch’s determination is stronger than ever to empower young people to live life to the fullest, discover who they are, and show how they can make a difference in the world around them.

“I believe youth can change the world if only they are given the opportunity,” she says.