AOU/FPSO at Dismantle
The AOU and FPSO team were the first group from Woodside to volunteer with Dismantle through the corporate program. Dismantle are a local organisation aiming to mentor at risk youth through the use of bike mechanics workshops. The primary goal of the organisation is to enable and empower vulnerable young people to live their life in a self-directed way.
One of Dismantle's main initiatives is BikeRescue, a dynamic youth development program that uses hands-on skill-building to engage and mentor young people in need of support. BikeRescue builds knowledge, social skills, confidence and teamwork through various mechanical and mentoring activities. During BikeRescue, participants fully strip and rebuild two bikes each. The first is donated to charity, which earns them the second one which they get the chance to customise and keep for themselves.
During each session, BikeRescue mentors work alongside participants while exploring their mental health, hobbies, passions, and vocational aspirations. Dismantle mentors help them to identify their barriers, figure out how to tackle their challenges, and provide support so they can reach their potential.
The program’s primary focus is to assist the participants with their lives, due to engagement restraints the participants do no always finish their donation bicycles and moving onto their own bicycles. As such, bikes are left unfinished and require further maintenance by Dismantle volunteers. This is where the AOU/FPSO volunteers came to the rescue!
Dismantle received support from two groups from the AOU/FPSO teams. The first group spent their afternoon working on a number of tasks. The first task was to help bring bikes for one of the programs up to speed by making sure they all had pedals, wheels, seats, and handlebars on each bike frame. Once completed, the next lot of bikes required gears and brakes to be added, tightened and inspected.
The team stopped for a quick afternoon tea break before returning to work and finishing off the bikes. Some of the feedback from the team was that the day was “excellent” and “great fun”. Dismantle were absolutely thrilled to host their first corporate team through VWA.
The second team attended the volunteering day the following Friday and were asked to inspect the bike’s brakes and fix or replace the brakes accordingly. A somewhat simple task that got tricky and fiddly, however, with guidance from Dismantle staff the team built their confidence in adjusting, replacing bike pads and cables and by the end fo the day became brake experts! Teh volunteers felt a sense of pride when testing the bikes out as this demonstrated their success in their newly learned skill!
At the end of the project Shannon, Program Manager at Dismantle, spoke more about Dismantle's Bike Rescue program and how the mentoring aspect of the program is the most important part for the youth involved in their Bike Rescue program. The support from the team in bringing the bikes up to speed for the next step in the program is greatly appreciated, and Dismantle look forward to hosting more Woodside teams in the future!
Some of the positive comments from the team:
"Learnt a lot"
“Feeling good about helping out a really good cause, while improving my mechanics skills”
To see more of the teams in action click: