For the past 6 months, the parents, supporters and players at West Footscray Juniors Football Club (WFFC) have warmed up at home games with a hot coffee or hot chocolate proudly made by the team from MAD Youth as part of their fundraising efforts. Each week the team have dedicated their time to the Coffee Cart Program to raise funds to support their four main focuses – youth homelessness, refugees and asylum seekers, youth mental health and the environment.
Through the funds raised from the Project, the group chose to invite their key supporters from Seddon Community Bank, IWCE, SIMS Supermarket and Alfa Bakehouse, as well as family and friends, to a private screening of the movie ‘2040’ at the Sun Theatre in August to create further awareness and discussion around climate climate.
Another keen project of the group is to support and build relationships with youth from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC). The funding has enabled MAD Youth to take representatives from the ASRC to their first AFL game in July, soon to be followed by a trip to Melbourne Zoo in September.
To show their appreciation of the support from WFFC, the group decided last weekend to give back to the club by contributing $300 to their All Aboard Fund – a fund that supports local young players that are eager to get on the field and play but whose families who cannot pay the membership fees.
Meg from MAD Youth summarised the group’s thoughts “We as a youth group want to support and empower other young people to join in their community and be the leaders they want to see. We hope with our contribution that this can happen. With the support of West Footscray Footy Club, we have earned some money from the coffee cart that support us in our community initiatives and programs. From that we are donating $300 to West Footscray Juniors so that they can have even more members that love to get out there and win it for the west! GO ROOSTERS!”
A break over summer will give the group time to further improve their barrista skills and hopefully expand their program to other local football clubs for season 2020. For more information about MAD Youth and their Coffee Cart Program contact Meg Sharma at madyouth.iwce@gmail.com