The Bourke NAIDOC report

BlackFit Fitness Pilot Program-Bourke July 2018 

On the 1st of July BlackFit Fitness travelled to Bourke NSW to run our very first pilot program. This pilot program would be the bench mark that we would use to develop who we are as BlackFit Fitness. Within this trip we run our schooling workshops and hold community fitness sessions out of the Bourke PCYC. The team travelled from all parts of Australia to make this trip happen which was a great indicator of their belief in the potential that BlackFit Fitness has.

It was exciting times as we all met in Dubbo New South Wales to begin our journey out west. It was two full cars (including the equipment). As we appraoched the dry levy banks of each town reaching Bourke, it sunk in. The sun was out but the temperature was cold, the team were actually doing this. For some it was their first time to Bourke NSW, for others it was a home long time away from home. 

Just to give you abit of history as to why we chose Bourke as a place to take our first step as a company; 3 years ago Bourke hard the highest crime rate in New South Wales and today Bourke still has the highest youth crime rate. We want to make a change with what we are going to be doing, so why not chuck ourselves in the deep - or so it felt for some. The other reason why we chose to test our teams strength was becuase two of our members at BlackFit Fitness were from Bourke NSW. They knew what it was like growing up there, what it took and how much programs like BlackFit Fitness would make a change. With these two reasons we took the Gap head on. 

Our schedule for the week; 

Bourke Public School and St Ignatius Parish School were the two schools that BlackFit Fitness would have the privilege of working with over the week. 

• Bourke Public School stages 1 and 2-Monday 2nd of July 

• St Ignatius Parish School stage 3 Wednesday 4th of July 

• St Ignatius Parish School stages 1 and 2 5th of July 

• Bourke Public School stage 3 Friday 6th of July.

• Tuesday Afternoon training the local Bourke Warriors Football club.

• At the PCYC gym every afternoon running a resistance training session. 

• Involving ourselves on Tuesday within the community at the local NAIDOC week events. 

As this was NAIDOC week and our school sessions link the aspects of a healthy lifestyle back to culture it was perfect timing. It was also great to connect with some of the local elders and Aboriginal people with in the Bourke community. This connection could possibly see culture training sessions take place in the near future.

The sessions that we ran included the following: Nutritional talks, bush tucker talks/tasting, fitness challenges, traditional aboriginal games, meditation, dream time stories and yarns with local elders. 

BlackFit Fitness were busy running sessions and providing information to the children throughout the week, not only did the children have lots to learn and information to take in, but the presenters from BlackFit Fitness were continuously learning from the children and had daily reflection time to adjust our pilot program and how ourselves could improve to make what we do better for the children and as a team. 

Some of the most valuable time was just talking to the children and finding out what they had learnt, what they thought about BlackFit, and comments like;

“those are the BlackFit guys”, “we had so much fun” , “ will you be coming back to our school?” “Mum gave me unhealthy food today...I’m going to tell her to pack me real food tomorrow”, “you guys were so professional” etc..

It’s rewarding to all BlackFit Fitness staff when we hear these comments and we can see that what we are presenting is being understood by the children and we hope that they put what they have learned into practice to benefit their health and well-being in the future.

In the blink of an eye it was all over. Friday, time for our team to leave, time to go back to the real world. We can say this however while in Bourke BlackFit Fitness not so much as a company but as a family learnt more then we bargained for. Everything that took place that week was for purpose, we found ourselves - we found Blackfit. From this experience we have a greater understanding of what we are wanting to achieve and how. It would be silly to say that the pilot in Bourke NSW 2018 was not a success. 

BlackFit Fitness would like to thank everyone that was involved in our pilot program in 2018 and more so both schools and the PCYC.