Walk Of Life Training Inc (WOLTi) is a not-for-profit  established to provide intensive life skills,  emotional education, employment training, education, case management and other supportive services to the community and specially to youth involved in youth justice, are homeless or experiencing abuse at home.  Our mission is to promote self sufficiency among the youth most in need.

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Walk Of Life Training inc. (WOLTi) focus is to assist disengaged youth who have broken up schooling, are in trouble with the law, are homeless or suffer from abuse in their homes. To access the youth most in need we mainly work at the Brisbane Youth Detention center (BYDC) at Wacol, where most young people are not only in detention, but also suffer Drug and alcohol addictions, have learning disabilities, mental illness, abandonment and abuse. They are also at high risk of suicide and live in families caught in the cycle of generational unemployment therefore only look forward to a life dependent on welfare. The young people at the BYDC come from many locations in Queensland. We currently assist young people from the areas of Gold Coast, Logan, Western district, Scenic rim, Ipswich and Brisbane however, this year as our capacity grows we intend to cover every area from Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast.

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Putting things into context:
Every young person deserves the opportunity to have a go at life - to be the best they can be regardless of gender, cultural background, disadvantaged upbringing, mental illness, medical condition etc.

But what is the problem:
The Young people we assist are the most in need young Australians who have had a difficult upbringing and have learned many coping mechanisms leading them to making more and more wrong decisions.  Many reside in homes where there is domestic violence, have been abused and have been forced or taught to commit crimes by care givers; some of them also have addictions, mental illness, and very limited schooling and a lot of them have been to detention numerous times.

Many of these participants have a very unsafe home or are homeless all together; some even re-offend intentionally because detention is safer than their home. The majority do not believe they have any abilities and can never succeed at anything other than crime and they have no guidance or appropriate support at home. These young people feel unsafe and incapable to see any kind of future for themselves. Their desperate situation leads them to depression, homelessness and in some cases to suicide; but there is HOPE through our life lessons training and the individual support, which brings a beginning of optimism through a caring environment and a self-discovery path to confidence and motivation.

The re-offence rate in Australia is currently in excess of 80%, and without adequate assistance to brake this cycle they will most likely grow into a life of poverty and crime as adults, which by default, makes Australian society more and more unsafe.  WOLTi has been created based on effective worldwide studies, e.g. Norway which has 25% re-offence rate, utilising a very effective and humane rehabilitation method.

What WOLTi is doing about it:
WOLTi works passionately assisting Australian youth most in need or at risk, it is our priority to help them feel safe and healthy, to feel appreciated and capable to work hard to build a positive future. We help bring the emotional stability that allows their motivation to rise, for hope to develop, and we give them a hand up to get started in the difficult task of leaving hardship behind and commencing a positive, productive, happy and healthy life.

Our program utilises an effective method of assessment to discover the young participants whose situation is purely the result of their environment, but have a good nature and the intrinsic desire to build a positive normal life. We then guide them through a self-discovery journey where they realise their natural skills and use them as a basis to, with our help, plan for a career path.

Since WOLTi’s program is a complete wrap around program we start our participants on their career path and continue supporting them with further learning or commencing skills building programs and entry-level employment until they reach stability. Each individual is different so the process can take anything from a few months to a few years, but it is our mission to help them succeed, and it is evident that broken up support is not effective so we are geared to continued assistance until they achieve independence.  

There are many programs that address a single issue, and government support departments who assist at various points in a young person’s life. WOLTi offers the continued constant support in their lives that joins other services, bringing a sense of stability and our policy is to be inclusive of all community and government groups therefore we have the links and working relationships to make the most of all assistance out there.

WOLTi is a Public Benevolent Institution with a Donor Gift Recipient (DGR) status granted by the Australian ATO, and we are registered with ACNC the charities overseeing body.