The Give Where You Live Foundation has worked with the Power in You Project since its inception, and this year provided the project with a $30,000 Survive & Thrive grant in May to ease the cost of client services and programs.
Running over 20 activities each week, the Power in You Project provides a range of supports for people experiencing drug and/or alcohol addiction, people living with a mental health condition, or who have been in contact with the justice system.
“We’re really lucky that we’ve got the support of organisations such as the Give Where You Live Foundation. Geelong is really, really lucky when it comes to community and the kindness that our community brings up,” said Kane Nuttall, founder of the Power in You Project.
Kane’s philosophy regarding recovery is simple – if someone can build up the courage to ask for help, they deserve to get that help immediately, rather than waiting on a waitlist in what is often an incredibly stressful and time-sensitive period.
“If someone builds up the courage to ask for help, you only have that small window to help them. Everyone who reaches out to the program for help is seen or spoken to within 24 hours,” said Kane.
That commitment to the clients is one of the reasons for the success of the program. Starting with just one client, the program now in its fifth year has quickly grown.
“Fast forward five years later, there is 29 staff. We’ve supported roughly 400 people and are currently supporting 90 people and running 25 sessions a week.”
These sessions include personal training, gym sessions, yoga, self-defense classes, cooking, art therapy, and Community Connection days where the clients can reintroduce themselves back into the community.
These programs aim to support the mental health of clients and engage them in positive activities interrupting drug and alcohol use while helping clients positively reconnect with the community.
Kane also found the support and feedback he received from the Foundation helped the Power in You Project grow and develop their services.
“To have that feedback, you know no other organisations do that. So, without the kindness of Give Where You Live our organisation just wouldn’t have ran,” said Kane
Kane’s story
Kane understands the unique challenges facing his clients first-hand.
“As a kid, I suffered with really bad acne, which led me to take a prescription tablet, but the side effects were severe depression which led me to a suicide attempt. I would have done anything for that pain to go away which led me to find comfort in drugs,” said Kane.
After using drugs and alcohol to cope with his mental health for over 10 years, Kane made a promise to his mother.
“I was keeping it together but the pain was still there. I promised my mom I’d be clean by the time I was 30 and I scraped in with four months to go.”
One month after getting clean, Kane enrolled in a drug and mental health diploma where he noticed a gap in the system that could’ve helped people like him. Having identified this need, after he finished his studies he got to work on creating a program to address it.
“I was at a yoga and meditation retreat in Indonesia. And as a part of that retreat, there were 24 hours where you had to be completely silent. Those 24 hours were a nightmare because anybody that knows me knows I like to have a chat, but in that time I wrote the plan for what would become the Power in You Project.”
Now having helped support over 400 people in their recovery journey and continuing to support 90, Kane leads with compassion and education.
“Unfortunately, there’s, you know, there’s not enough education in the community. Somebody doesn’t wake up one day and say, ‘hey, I wanna be a junkie.’ You need to look deeper.”
“You just see so many desperate people you know, and unfortunately desperate people do desperate things. There’s a reason that this stuff is happening and as a community, if we don’t wrap our arms around these people, who is going to help them?”