Building the skating community

THE Y in collaboration with GippSport, FreeZa and the YES Youth Hub are enabling a better community culture for youth within Bass Coast – holding weekly ‘Skate Sesh’ events in Corinella, Cowes, Grantville, and Inverloch until January 23.

Skate Park Coordinator for Bass Coast, Jerrie Liberaty hosted the Inverloch Skate Sesh on January 15 and spoke with the Sentinel Times about the community building sessions, sharing that FreeZa are focused on encouraging youth participation and engagement at alcohol and drug free events.

“As the Skate Park Coordinator for Bass Coast, I also work with FreeZa – it’s a government initiative to get a young person involved in their community, and I have been working on getting a committee of 12 young people together to help organise events for the local area,” said Jerrie.

“This program helps those involved build skills for their resumes as they’re entering the workforce; they develop skills in networking, social media and marketing and event planning – anything that they may take interest in.”

Jerrie welcomes all youth between the ages of 12-25 to get in touch with the Y or the YES Youth Hub if they’d like to get involved with the FreeZa program or if they have any ideas that they’d like to see happen within Bass Coast.

The Bass Coast Skate Parks will hold another five ‘Skate Sesh’ events on the following dates:

January 16. Corinella - 10am until 12pm.

January 16. Grantville - 12pm until 2pm.

January 22. Wonthaggi – 11am until 1pm.

January 23. Corinella – 10am until 12pm.

January 23. Grantville – 12pm until 2pm.

Head on down to one of the above locations to participate in a ‘Skate Sesh’ that includes, music, street games (hosted by GippSport) and a sausage sizzle. Registration is not required.

“Bring a board or borrow one from us,” said Jerrie.