On the eve of our annual week in Mudgee, we would like to thank a brand new sponsor for 2018: Moolarbencoal.

We're thankful to have an organisation like Moolarbencoal appreciate the importance and relevance of the Survivor Life Skills program. Along with Club Mudgee and Midwest Regional Council, Moolarbencoal is supporting our program as we bring it to students in the regional area of Mudgee.

Moolarbencoal does some fantastic work within their community, and we look forward to working with them in the future!

To find out a little bit more about Moolarbencoal, you can visit their website at http://www.moolarbencoal.com.au 

The Australian Governments report Australia's Welfare 2017 is an annual report that covers different issues within different population groups.

​Over the past week there has been much discussion within the media regarding two of these particular issues: the changing trends in workforce participation, and the changing trends in house ownership. You can view the full report at https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/australias-welfare-2017/data

We work with young people every single day, and are well aware of how these trends can affect youth on a personal level. We're proud to be able to offer a service that addresses these issues. Our employment modules, within the Survivor program, help equip students for entering an ever changing workforce, preparing the best resume, and performing well in interviews. Of course, our budgeting modules are designed to help students develop good budgeting habits from an early age, which certainly has a large impact on entering the property market.

Reports such as this continue to highlight, year-in-year-out, that Australian Youth must be provided with services that address personal financial literacy as this can affect so many areas of an individuals life.

Visiting regional and rural areas of Australia is obviously a different under-taking to visiting our local, inner-city students. Our annual visit to Mudgee takes plenty of planning, organisation and, of course, community support! In that regard, we are thankful to once again have the support of the Midwest Regional Council who offer us annual support for their community.

We'd like to thank Midwest Regional Council for their continued support of the Survivor program, and all of the great work they do within their community.

To find out more, visit their website at: ​http://www.midwestern.nsw.gov.au

It's March again, which means that Howard will once again be visiting the beautiful NSW town of Mudgee to deliver the Survivor Life Skills Program to students in rural NSW. As in previous years, the program is supported by one of our returning sponsors Club Mudgee!

Since inception, it's been important that our programs are available not just to inner-city students, but also to the youth in rural areas of Australia. Club Mudgee has been supporting us in this regard for many years now.

For more information on the club, or to find out about the great work they do within the community, please visit their webpage at ​https://www.clubmudgee.com.au

On Monday, the Australian Research Alliance for Youth and Children (ARACY) released their annual report on 'The Well-Being of Young Australians'. Tracking how young Australians were faring in international comparisons against 75 indicators of health and well-being, the report found that many of the indicators were heading in the wrong direction.

Largely focussed on the mental health of young Australians, the report showed increased levels of high or very high psychological distress amongst 18 to 24 year olds (15.4 per cent up from 11.8 per cent in 2011) and suicide rates amongst 15 to 25 year olds.

Reports such as this demonstrate how important it is to ensure that young people are offered the services and information that can help them develop into healthy, productive members of the community.

We believe that financial literacy can greatly improve the well-being of young people, allowing them to make healthy decisions, and giving them the resources and discipline to make the most of any opportunity.

​This is our objective when providing our Survivor Life Skills programs.

Once again, in 2018, we would like to welcome on-board The Canterbury Leagues Club who are once again supporting our program in the Canterbury Bankstown Area.

The impact of our program increases when we are able to provide the service consistently, visiting new and previous students each year. The support of clubs such as Canterbury Leagues, who work with us annually, is essential and we are glad to have their support once again.

To find out more about Canterbury Leagues Club, please visit their website at ​https://canterbury.com.au

We're very lucky to have the continued support of Sutherland District Trade Union Club (Tradies) in 2018!

As a business based in The Sutherland Shire it's important that we can deliver our Survivor programs to students in our local community and we have been assisted in this endeavour by the support of Tradies for well over a decade.

A fantastic team and venue, if you'd like to find out a little more about Tradies, you can visit their website at ​http://tradies.com.au

We are excited to once again have the support of our long-term sponsors at Wests Leagues Club. We've been working with Wests for a number of years now and we're incredibly proud to be a part of the great work they do for the communities in Western Sydney.

With West's support, over the years, we've delivered the Survivor Program to students numbering in the tens-of-thousands, and we're looking forward to continuing this partnership throughout 2018.

If you'd like to find out a bit more about Wests' Leagues Club, and all the amazing work that they do, please visit their website at https://www.westslc.com.au
​

It's the first day of 2018 and we're looking forward to a super exciting year!

Wishing all of our partners and sponsors the best for the year ahead, we can't wait to present our Survivor Programs to individuals from all walks of life over the next 12-months and hope to help the Youth of Australia make the most of not just 2018, but the rest of their lives!

Well, we are once again approaching the end of another year, and it's been an extremely busy one here at the Business Concierge.

2017 has seen us delivering our Survivor Life Skills High School Program to record numbers of students across NSW, ensuring that our young people have the financial skills to make the most of their lives as they mature and enter the world. We've also continued to see the amazing impact of the Stress and the HSC segment of the program, equipping Year 11/12 students with skills, techniques and perspectives that are incredibly effective in coping and performing well during the HSC.

It's certainly been a year of focussing on the students as we've also visited record numbers of Primary School students, introducing kids to financial concepts through our short, fun games and activities program. We have so much fun delivering this program, and it's amazing how smart these young people are when given the opportunity to explore concepts they often see on television, or hear their parents discussing.

Finally, we'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors, as well as the Principals, Teachers and community-leaders who share our passion and have worked with us throughout 2017. We'd be unable to do what we do without their support, and we receive emails and comments every day expressing the impact that the Survivor Life Skills program has had on participants (and even their families!), so we know that our appreciation is shared by many other people.

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas, we will be back in 2018 for another full and exciting year!

The Business Concierge Team