Today marks 30 years since the death of our beloved founder, Rear Admiral Sir David Martin KCMG, AO, RAN, 34th Governor of NSW who died on 10 August 1990.
Sir David was indeed the “People’s Governor” and touched so many with his humility, service and kindness.
As we honour Sir David’s outstanding life and legacy, we also celebrate 30 years of helping young people in crisis through the Sir David Martin Foundation.
You can read more about Sir David and the Martin Family here and also learn more about Sir David’s distinguished Royal Australian Naval carer here
If you would like to help us continue Sir David’s vision to bring “safety, hope and opportunity” to young people, please consider making a donation to Sir David Martin Foundation
Together we can make a difference!
This week (2 – 8 August 2020) is National Homelessness Week.
The theme of this year’s campaign is Everybody Needs a Home – which takes on added significance as the COVID-19 led economic crisis is expected to leave even more vulnerable young Australians without a safe place to call home.
Without the safety of stable accommodation, these young people are at risk of violent crime. But they are also at risk of suicide. Life can feel overwhelming and as they are still evolving into adulthood they may not have the necessary resilience and life skills to cope. Addiction to alcohol and drugs are often a result of searching for a method to cope with their situation, to self-medicate.
We know that many young people who attend Triple Care Farm’s best practice youth drug and alcohol programs have already experienced homelessness in their lives. Learn more about how Sir David Martin Foundation offers support to help young people to create brighter and safer futures here.
Together with your support we can help young Australians break the cycle of addiction and create a safe place to call home.
Read more about National Homelessness Week 2020 and access the latest findings from Mission Australia’s Youth Survey Report Staying home: A Youth Survey report on young people’s experience of homelessness.
This September Sir David Martin Foundation will launch the inaugural Youth Recovery Month to create community awareness and greater understanding of the complexities faced by young people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.
We know that prevention and getting the right help early gives young people a much better chance of going on to lead a full and healthy life. Leaving judgement aside, the respectful promotion of this health and social problem will inform and educate the public and spread the word that investing in our youth is vital for our future.
During Youth Recovery Month we will:
Challenge views
Our new online fundraising campaign, Reset Challenge, seeks to challenge and broaden perceptions about youth recovery by highlighting the importance of forming new and sustainable behaviours. We know it takes 30 days to form a healthy habit. What part of YOUR life can you reset this September?
Inform and educate
Collaborate
The Foundation will bring together key players in the field of youth drug and alcohol treatment in a series of roundtables to discuss what more can be done to address the needs in our community.
Are you ready to reset and form a new healthy habit?
** Stay tuned for updates about the 2021 Reset Challenge**Reset Challenge is Sir David Martin Foundation’s fun new online fundraising campaign, which invites everyone to choose a challenge that will help reset their life to ultimately form a new healthy life habit – all in the name of supporting young people in crisis!.
The concept of forming new healthy habits mirrors an important part of a young person’s recovery process – where support is given to create and maintain new healthy habits for a life free of drugs and alcohol.
Launched in September 2020 as part of Youth Recovery Month, Reset Challenge invites participants to consider a new healthy habit to improve your physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
Your challenge might include:
- continuing a HEALTH routine you’ve developed during COVID-19, such as daily yoga
- starting a FITNESS challenge, such as 30 sit-ups a day
- trying something completely new to reconnect with your FAMILY, such as limiting screen time and takeaway foods.
Once you’ve decided on your challenge, it’s time to rally your friends, family and colleagues to support you along the way.
Share your nominated challenge and ask your supporters to help keep you motivated and accountable by making a donation to help you meet your fundraising goals.
You can also share your progress across social media using #resetchallengeAU
Introducing Reset Challenge Ambassador, Phil Kearns AM
We are excited to announce that Wallabies legend, Phil Kearns AM has joined Reset Challenge as our official 2020 Ambassador. Phil has committed to completing a daily ocean swim challenge for the month of September as his personal Reset Challenge. Read more about Reset Challenge Ambassador, Phil Kearns here
Getting involved is easy!
- CHOOSE your challenge – we’ve got some great examples here to help you decide
- REGISTER online at www.resetchallenge.org.au
- COMMIT to your challenge for 30 days (or a time period of your choice)
- ASK your family, friends and colleagues to support you via a donation or better still, join you!
Interested in learning more? Contact us at [email protected]
** This event has now concluded. See here for upcoming events**
Join us for a Virtual Winter Country Lunch on Thursday 30th July, hosted by Anna Beaumont from Sir David Martin Foundation.
This is your unique opportunity to ‘visit’ Triple Care Farm and meet some of the amazing individuals who provide life changing care and support for our young people in crisis.
You will be joined online by Triple Care Farm program manager, Gabriella Holmes and Nurse Educator Clinical Leader, Beth Horne from the David Martin Place Withdrawal Program. Together they will share latest updates and insights from the Farm and engage in a lively Q&A with attendees.
About Triple Care Farm
Triple Care Farm is a unique, holistic drug and alcohol treatment centre, which gives vulnerable young Australians, aged 16-24, a safe place to get well and prepare for new opportunities. The program includes withdrawal, rehabilitation and aftercare services.
Winter Country Lunch
DATE: Thursday, 30th July 2020
TIME: 12pm –1pm
ATTEND: simply fill in the Registration Form below. Once registered you will be emailed a link to join the event via Microsoft Teams on the day.We look forward to ‘lunching’ with you all!
Please register below:
‘Quit your job now. Sam will need full time care for the rest of her short-lived life.’
The doctor spoke again:
‘She will never gain employment, or live independently.’
Sam, 19, was in acute psychosis.
Covered in blood and unable to tell staff if it was hers or someone else’s, she was scared. Incoherent and confused, her body (liver failure) and mind were breaking down.
Involuntarily admitted into a frightening mental health ward, Sam was at a crossroads.
She reflects:
‘My weight dropped to 55 kilos. I knew I wasn’t well.’
In three short years, Sam’s life had unravelled following a spinal injury when she was just 16. An opioid addiction (from prescribed pain killers) had escalated into frequent binge drinking, cannabis consumption and ‘whatever drugs were around’. A diagnosis of schizophrenia followed.
‘I had no life. I didn’t want to be the person I was.’
“The hardest thing I ever had to do.”
Triple Care Farm is for brave young people who ask for help.
‘When I say the three months at Triple Care Farm were the hardest times of my life, I’m not even close to exaggerating.’
The impact of the farm program has never left Sam.
‘I cried, I begged to go home. A life of drugs was far easier than anything on the farm.’
Arriving at the farm with plastic bags on her feet to ‘avoid the germs getting into my brain’, a beanie, sunglasses and an oversized jumper, she hid from the world. Hearing voices and paranoid, it was the counselling sessions that were the hardest.
‘Letting people in – that was impossible. I feared being judged. I was desperate not to be the person I was.’
But one winter’s morning, sprinting across the frosted grass, Sam burst into the farm offices with unbridled excitement. She desperately wanted to ring her mum.
‘I had woken up, and for the first time that year, I wasn’t hearing voices. I wasn’t paranoid. My head was clear!’
This is the power of your support.
Sam’s bright future.
We are so proud of Sam.
This April, she is 12 years free of drugs.
Since leaving the farm, she has completed a certificate in Youth Work and Mental Health, a diploma in Mental Health Drug and Alcohol and a degree in Paramedicine. Next year Sam hopes to begin post graduate studies in Chronic Disease Management.
Today she works full time, helping mentally unwell people control their weight, physical health and fitness.
Remember, this is the same girl whose family were told she would need full time care for the rest of her short-lived life.
‘I graduated university in 2019. Mum watched on, tears streaming down her face – tears of pure joy, tears of pride’.
This is the power of your generosity.
To support the work of Sir David Martin Foundation, please donate online today.
Read Will’s article in The Sydney Morning Herald.
As we celebrate 30 years since the Foundation began its important work, we thank Lady Martin and the family for their service and contribution to vulnerable young Australians.
“Having grown up in a Naval family, ANZAC Day carries a very personal meaning for Will. His father, the late Sir David Martin, was Governor of New South Wales in 1989 and passed away shortly before establishing Sir David Martin Foundation in 1990. He had developed mesothelioma, a disease caused by breathing in asbestos on a Naval ship, HMAS Sydney, in 1951-2, during the war in Korea. Looking back at the previous generation, Sir David Martin was only eight years old when his father, William Harold Martin, was killed in a battle at sea in 1942.”
Will Martin is a Board Member of the Foundation, and continues his father’s legacy of “safety, hope and opportunity for all young Australians.”
The COVID-19 crisis continues to worsen. Increasing numbers of people have been diagnosed with the virus and, very sadly, we have now had 11 deaths nationally and 6 here in New South Wales. To the families and loved ones of those who succumbed to the virus, please accept, on behalf of the people of NSW, my condolences.
It is very challenging time for the whole community. The loss of jobs is particularly concerning. There is also so much uncertainty around how long the virus will last, what further restrictions will need to be put in place, how many more jobs will be lost.
As Queen Elizabeth said last week:
Individuals and families … around the world, are entering a period of great concern and uncertainty.
Her Majesty added:
We are all being advised to change our normal routines and regular patterns of life for the greater good of the communities we live in and, in particular, to protect the most vulnerable within them.
Difficult as are the constraints that we all have to observe, the message is clear; we have to pull together as a community, engage in self-isolation as much as possible and follow the advice of the Government and NSW Health.
Lives, community health and livelihoods depend upon our concerted actions in doing the right thing. By faithfully observing the governments directions and guidance, the sooner, we as a community, will see the crisis lessen and indeed hopefully abate.
As we increase our physical isolation from one another let’s increase our connection to family, friends and community through phone calls and social media.
We are in this together and we all want to come out of it together.
Source: https://www.governor.nsw.gov.au/governor/selected-speeches-and-messages/show/1024
After Graduation was postponed in December due to catastrophic fire risk at the farm, hundreds of people packed into the Shellharbour Civic Centre last Friday to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2019 students, who had completed the drug and alcohol rehab and detox programs.
As you may know, Triple Care Farm is a youth drug and alcohol service – a youth rehab and detox program for young people aged 16-24 years old. As the primary funder of the program, Sir David Martin Foundation and supporters ensure Triple Care Farm continues to meet the complex needs of youth in crisis from around Australia. Triple Care Farm turned 30 years old in 2019, and we celebrated with a big cake for everyone to enjoy.
The program saves young lives. An alumni, Samantha, who completed the rehabilitation 12 years ago stood up, sharing a sentiment that brought tears to our eyes; “Triple Care Farm saved my life – helped me to find myself and my direction and purpose. When I was considering getting help for my addiction I remember thinking, how could I hold onto this life if death was the only option?”
Students from this year’s graduation class performed music pieces learnt in the music program. The cover of ‘I’m Still Standing’ by Elton John spoke a million words, as a graduate sang like a “true survivor”.
It was a celebration of lives transformed. In a young person’s words; “from the chaotic life of drugs, to goals for my future”. These young men and women are very appreciative of people like you who care about them and believe in change.
For those who support Sir David Martin Foundation, Graduation is a testament to your generosity. You ensure the program is available to youth in crisis.
Thank you for kindly supporting young people, providing them with safety, hope and opportunity.
Images by Rebecca Rosconi Photography.
A Graduate and his mother
Lady Martin with Graduate, Millie
2019 Graduate, Millie, sharing her story
Temperatures were high on the original Graduation date in December 2019. In consultation with the Rural Fire Service, given the size of the event, the isolated location of the property and its vicinity to bush land, the ceremony did not go ahead.
The good news is that a new location and date has been set, and we will still be celebrating the achievements of the young graduates with their family and friends. The ceremony will honour students who completed drug and alcohol rehabilitation and withdrawal in 2019.
Please join us to celebrate the Triple Care Farm 2019 Graduation Ceremony.
Date: Friday 14 February, 2020
Time: 10.30am Morning tea served
11.00am Ceremony commences
12.30pm Light lunch served
Where: Shellharbour Civic Centre, 76 Cygnet Avenue,
Shellharbour City Centre NSW 2529
(Corner of Cygnet and College Avenue)
We hope to see you there!