Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Lift The Load Appeal

Transcript

Lift The Load Appeal · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: G'day everyone, an unscheduled podcast because I wanted to just
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: drop into your feed and ask for your help. I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hate to start on a negative and I don't want
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to lead with something horrible. It goes against all the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: rules of PR and fundraising, but I have to be
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: honest and I hinted at this yesterday in our I'll
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Do Better Tomorrow podcast. This past week may have been
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the most depressing week that I can recall in terms
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of news stories highlighting boys and men. It started with
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the atrocious, almost unspeakable story about men, fully grown men
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: at Cornell University who are alleged to have sexually assaulted
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a woman in their fraternity building in ways that I
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: just cannot and will not pollute your mind with in
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: this podcast. But if you've seen the story, you know
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. Then we heard about Sam Wood.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: These allegations of domestic assault are now being defended in
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the courts, so I can't say much about it. I've
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: spoken with Sam on his podcast a couple of times,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and I'm just reeling over this story. And my heart
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: is breaking for the families of two boys on the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Gold Coast, Kaya Kennedy, age 12, Trayvon Bradshaw, age 13,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: who both took their lives this past weekend. The most
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: awful of circumstances. I don't know how to say this
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: any louder and any clearer. Boys and men are struggling.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: They're hurting girls, they're hurting each other, and they're hurting themselves.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: And they need help. They need mentors. They need direction.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: They need more men to stand up and show them
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that healthy masculinity is where a man helps the people
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: around him to feel safer and stronger. I've written a
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: whole book about it, but that's not what this quick
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: podcast drops about. It's actually about asking you for your help. Today, Saturday,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: October 10, I'm doing something that feels impossibly hard while
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I raise funds for a mentoring program called Top Blokes.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, while you're listening to this, I'm probably in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: some form of pain doing this really hard thing. I'm
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: walking 50 kilometers around the New South Wales Central Coast
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: in an attempt to raise $ 50, 000 for Top Blokes. And
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I'll be carrying a 10 kilo vest for the entire distance.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: So the maths on this thing's really simple. A thousand
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: people throw in $ 50 each and we achieve the target.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: At the time that I'm recording this podcast, I'm recording
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: it on Friday, we've hit $ 17, 000, which means that just
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: over $ 30, 000 and we're there. That means I need another
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: 600 people to chip in. And based on the thousands
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and thousands of people who listen to this podcast, I
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: just need 600 people to throw $ 50 in And we're there.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I reckon we can do it. $ 50, 000 for 50K. It's
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: 50K for 50K. Will you please donate? And if you
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: can manage more than $ 50, that would really help because
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: there are some people who can't manage it. If you
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: can only make 20, then that would be incredible. But
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: if you've got 500 or 1,000, every dollar makes such
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a difference. I wanted to quickly tell you how Top
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Blokes helps young men, and then I'll wrap this up.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Mentors teach and guide at-risk boys to build resilience and
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: emotional well-being, to develop healthy relationships and to learn how
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to ask for help and support. And the research shows
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: that 78% of boys who complete a Top Blokes program
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: report improvements in confidence, resilience, emotional well-being and willingness to
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: seek help. There was an independent economic analysis by EY,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Ernst & Young, that found that the Top Blokes Foundation
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: generates up to $ 4. 15 in social value for every dollar
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: that's invested in its mentoring programs for young men. That's
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a phenomenal return on investment. What it means is that
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: this program works. That's an independent analysis that showed that
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: across all of their programs delivered between 2022 and 2025,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a $ 5. 5 million investment generated an estimated $ 19. 2 million in
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: broader social value. So let's up the value. Let's help them. Today,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I promise you I'm going to be in a lot
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: of pain. I don't even know if I can do
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: this thing. It's so big and it's so hard. My
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: body has not been happy with me during training. My
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: longest walk so far with the weight has been 21
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: kilometers and I didn't respond well. I have no idea
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: how I'm going to complete the 50Ks. But this is
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: really personal for me. You know about my nephew, Logan.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Three years ago, he passed away. He took his life
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: because he didn't know how to ask for help. And
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: He didn't have the resilience and the ability to work
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: through the trials that he was facing. And as a man,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of seeing the awful behavior and the scattered
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: trail of broken and hurt lives that the news serves
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: up to us every day as a result of boys
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and men who can't communicate, who won't seek help, and
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: choose to hurt other people and themselves. And this is
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: what I'm doing about it. I'm investing in long-term mentoring
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to help boys do better and to learn how to
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: help the people around them to feel safer and stronger.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Because helping boys helps everyone. Our girls are safer and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: stronger when our boys are. So that's my message. That's
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: my plea. Please donate. It helps. The link's in the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: show notes. Please help me lift the load as I'm
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: trying to help top blokes lift the load for our
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: young men. Really appreciate your support. Thanks for listening to this.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Wish me luck. This one is going to hurt. Have
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a great weekend.