TRACTION: focusing on early intervention and prevention programs for young people

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Rebecca Archer

Welcome to The Remarkables – Grant Thornton’s podcast series dedicated to sharing extraordinary stories of individuals who are making significant contributions to their communities. 

Today, we’re joined by Sandy Murdoch, Founder of TRACTION.

TRACTION is a not-for-profit organisation helping young people stay focused and on track through hands-on learning. Recognising that not all young people reach their potential in the classroom, TRACTION provides alternative ways pathways to build their future, offering ‘on-the-tools’ learning to build confidence and practical skills.

The organisation works with young people aged between 12-15 years of age who may be at risk of disengaging from school or just prefer being in a practical learning environment, providing early intervention and prevention programs that help them build successful futures.

Welcome, Sandy!

Sandy Murdoch 

Rebecca, thanks very much for having me.

Rebecca Archer 

To kick off the episode, we're going to jump straight into a bit of a rapid-fire round. I'll ask you some questions at random where you can respond with whatever comes to mind. First of all, what are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

Sandy Murdoch 

Reading: it's a book about the Z Force, which was a secret force in World War II and my grandfather was part of that and it was, until he passed away, it was still something that he wasn't able to disclose. So, I'm curious about that.

I’m  listening to some great Aussie music, including Floodlights, I think they're called, and a bit of King Stingray and watching Landman, which has been a change of scenery.

Rebecca Archer

Great escapism there. I love those recommendations. Thank you so much. All right, next question. What's been a pivotal moment in your career?

Sandy Murdoch 

Oh, look, I have a background in business. We had a family business, Heron Pharmaceuticals, years ago and we had a challenge at one point where we had to do a national recall of our products, and it was pivotal because the way our team banded together, and I guess it's the founding or my origin around a belief I hold now that just ordinary people working together can achieve extraordinary things.

So, it was one of those moments where it could have been the end of the business, but the culture that had been built over many years leading into that challenge sort of shone through and we managed to return, and looking back, that challenge, as tough as it was, probably one of my fondest sort of memories in business.

Rebecca Archer 

Thanks for sharing that, and last of all, what in your opinion makes something or someone remarkable?

Sandy Murdoch

Oh, look, I think people that have passion and have discovered their purpose and taking action and that sort of energy that they put into fulfilling their dreams, I find infectious, and I think it's a mindset around working through challenges, overcoming adversity, and learning and constantly being open to learning.

So, I find that people who are really driven by their purpose to be, wonderful to be around.

Rebecca Archer 

Fantastic. All right, let's get into the questions about TRACTION. How did you start TRACTION? What was the sort of germination of the idea for this organisation?

Sandy Murdoch

Well, it was about 11 years ago, and I had been involved in businesses and really loved that environment to grow, learn, to be challenged, to make a difference, but I realised I was wanting for more, and I came across some research that basically said people without purpose are twice as likely to die, and I'd had a couple of close calls myself with an anaphylactic reaction following a battle with a King Alaskan Crab.

Also, I've only got one sibling – my younger sister had a confrontation with cancer, and she managed to sort of work through that, but it had me reflect on, what is it to make a meaningful life and to live a meaningful life and what is success? And I dropped into the whole thing about it's all about time – that's our scarcest resource.

So, I wanted to sort of put my time in and invest it well, and so reflecting on, well, what could I do? What do I want to do next? And my purpose was around doing something to make a difference in community, and I was drawn to work with young people, and growing up, I kind of struggled a bit to figure out what I wanted to do and be, and I thought, if I've had all of the opportunities and privilege in my upbringing, how are those who are in really challenging situations, how are they navigating that? And perhaps they don't have the luxury to sort of consider their future. They're just getting by.

But I locked in then on what could I do to help vulnerable young people to discover their strengths and chase their dreams? And I guess what was interesting for me with young people was, well, if we could make a difference to that young person, then it's got the potential to sort of have an impact over their whole life and even future generations.

So, it felt meaningful for me to put effort into working and creating a new environment for young people. So, it was TRACTION about 11 years ago that we started with this model of effectively hands on learning and mentoring, and it's just been an amazing journey, and our team are helping young people realise amazing impact.

Rebecca Archer 

And on a practical level, what does the organisation offer for young people? Can you give us some examples?

Sandy Murdoch 

It's very practical; it's hands-on learning and it's young people who are identified by schools, who are, I guess, our referral partner. The schools will meet and select young people who they know are experiencing some challenges and would benefit from the TRACTION learning environment.

So, in practice, those young people get selected in groups of 6-12 and they attend a TRACTION workshop, typically off site from school, in a completely different environment from a traditional classroom, and they attend for a day, a week across a school term.

So, we end up spending about 54 hours with our young people and they complete projects like building bikes they get to keep, and they're working through the projects with others, and our mentors who work alongside them support them through the process of building relationships with their peers, and those peers become friends and that's so powerful for them feeling connected and a part of the school and the learning community, and our mentors help them discover strengths and help the young people consider, well, what is my potential?

And so, it's an environment where our young people boost confidence, discover strengths and are empowered, and our message is around, you know, unlock your potential and have a crack at those hopes and dreams and really connecting though, that they have a responsibility to make these things happen.

So taking back the lessons they learn in the TRACTION workshop environment – which is very much modelled like a workplace – have them take those connections, those skills back into other parts of their lives, like the school classroom, like home and like out into community, so those tangible, transferable skills, they get to apply in other realms of life and impact other people.

Rebecca Archer 

I have to ask, why bikes in particular? Of all the things that you could have these kids build, what was it about bicycles that really spoke to you?

Sandy Murdoch 

Well, when I was younger, I had a BMX and I loved it, and when you think about a project that young people could get hands on with and complete, a bike is actually something that they look forward to getting to keep at the end.

So, they're really drawn to, there's something in it for me to complete. I can ride that bike to get places; I can ride it with others, and it's a way of connecting with the community, but it's also a project through which they can develop great skills around workplace safety, around understanding of tools, how things work, a work practice and method, craftsmanship around – they sand these bikes back to bare metal and that's hard work, and they prepare that surface for the investment of the priming colour of coat of paint and then the artistic creation and the unique bike that they get to create which is in a pattern and that reflects their own personality.

So, it's a one-of-a-kind bike that they get to complete and keep, and so, at the same time, the program's nothing really about the bike, it's about the conversations that happen alongside our mentors and together and that journey of discovery that they're going through.

But the bikes are very good. They literally are ones that the kids keep and that gets them to school, it gets them to friends, places. And one of the stories I had early on was a young person who came back as an assistant mentor in a follow-on program, and I asked him how is he going and is he still riding his bike? And he revealed that the previous night he'd ridden that bike to a friend's place because it just wasn't safe for him to be at home. It was a violent environment.

So, we know the bikes are often about connection, it's about exercise, it's about some wonderful benefits. It's also about safety and literally it's saving lives of these kids.

Rebecca Archer 

Where do you get the bikes from? Are they donated to traction?

Sandy Murdoch 

In effect they are because we rely on donations from the community and we source the bikes through a very generous partner in the bicycle industry that helps source those bikes for us. We started where the bikes were donated from community and that was fantastic way for community to help us, but it meant every bike was different and quite often some of these bikes weren't able, able to be salvaged. They were very well loved beforehand. So, we now have a model where the bikes are the same. Every young person gets that same blank canvas to work from, and it has also meant our mentors, they don't necessarily need to be bike mechanics, and in order to guide our young people through the process of completing their projects, it means they can really meet our young people where they're at, build rapport and trust with them, and that encouragement and that mentoring is really, I guess, the spark that our team can provide for our young people.

Rebecca Archer 

There's also the Boombox program in addition to the likes. What can you tell me about that?

Sandy Murdoch 

Well, I guess we meet young people in different contexts: in primary schools and secondary schools and help them in the pathways to employment, and so, the projects that they complete in some ways is secondary as to how we're meeting and supporting them at different stages of their learning journey.

So, the bikes have definitely been a core project, and the bulk of our programs feature bikes, but the boomboxes are great, too. Imagine recycled army ammunition boxes, computer speakers, recycled laptop batteries, 3D printed battery housings that our young people essentially get to build, like an old ghetto blaster that they can connect to their phones via Bluetooth, and they can play music, and music is obviously another form of identification, and it's a way you can form connections with others through a love of music, and our young people love the boomboxes because once again, they get to keep them, but they're also building them over a period of time, and they're decorating them with artwork, and they're learning how to work with metal and operate tooling and equipment. They're learning about the concept of 3D printing and how you can, if you have an idea, you can almost create anything tangible. They're learning about recycling.

So, these are different, I guess, project vehicles around which the conversations happen. But it's that completion and that sense of success our young people feel as they build skills and complete projects and form connections with others. That is where the real tangible output is.

Rebecca Archer 

You start working with kids in sort of adolescence, I suppose, at age 12. Why would you say that it's important to act as early as you possibly can when it comes to helping these kids to stay on track?

Sandy Murdoch 

Well, I think we all are aware of what happens when we don't support young people. When they disengage from education and they've not had the support as they're developing, it's understandable to see how they can make choices that have them hang with the wrong crowd. Where does that lead?

Quite often it's trouble with the police and youth crime and youth detention. That's expensive. It's not good for our young people, but costs billions a year, costs a million dollars a year to house a young person in youth detention. If you think of the disengagement from learning and is also a trigger for poor health, mental health and physical health. So often these young people become a burden of on our public health and our health systems, which is very costly.

When they don't learn about respectful relationships, they often can perpetuate domestic and family violence, and if they haven't had an education and can't hold down a job, then they don't have financial independence, so they're dependent on welfare and benefits.

So, these costs of failing to support our young people in effect is a neglect of our young people is a cost that we all bear, it's billions of dollars a year. So, our view is that every young person deserves the chance to imagine and build their own future and keeping them engaged in learning is critical part of that.

So, meeting them early, supporting them to keep in that positive learning journey, rather than falling through the cracks and through systems and into negative trajectories, it's actually not just the right thing to do; it's a smart investment. So, keeping our young people supported, discovering their strengths and on a pathway to realizing their dreams, it's actually our duty and it's what these young people deserve. And when our young people thrive, we all do. So, it's a no brainer for me, and through TRACTION, we're showing what can be done when you get it right, and we hear of examples where we've literally saved kids’ lives because they were in such a dark space and feeling isolated, that when we can engage them and have them get a sense of belonging and chasing something, then life's worth living and that's great.

We hear stories of young people who would probably have, through isolation, loneliness etc, disengagement from school, who knows where they would have gone, and we've turned lives around and getting them into pathways to employment.

So, for us this need is massive. There's 70,000 young people in Queensland today who are disengaging from school, and that disengagement is basically a pipeline of young people to jail, and the poor outcomes we need to keep those young people engaged, and the most concerning thing for me is that number of disengaged young people just in Queensland alone is projected to grow to 280,000 in four years’ time.

So that's a skyrocketing level of kids that may be lost to the education system and be on terribly negative pathways, and that's not good for them and it's costly for all of us.

Rebecca Archer 

How many kids have you helped through your program?

Sandy Murdoch 

We've had 3,000 young people through our program since we started in 2015, and this year we'll support about 500 young people, and over the next four years we're looking to grow that say two and a half thousand young people a year.

So, we're not getting to every young person that's disengaging, but we're showing a model that's working, and what we're understanding now is that for every young person we help, they go back to a classroom where there's 25 and 30 others that they can bring positive influence to.

There are families they go back and connect with these communities that they engage with. So, two and a half thousand people, if we reach that every year, it's probably more like 100,000 lives we're touching through that ripple out of those benefits. So, for us it's meaningful work to do.

There's a massive need that's growing, and we just want to reach more young people and share what we're learning and as a community, build human momentum together.

Rebecca Archer 

And is it primarily through schools that the kids find out about your program?

Sandy Murdoch

Look, we found partnering with schools has been a wonderful way to reach young people who need help, and the reason being is those school staff who can see the young people that need the support, they can see them starting to sort of slip a bit in their attendance or struggle with self-regulation of behaviour, or see kids that are isolated and see kids that are experiencing challenges outside a school classroom. So, they're a wonderful referral point. But also, we're able to work with young people in groups.

So, our mentoring approach is not sort of one on one. It's actually we're not working with kids in isolation; we're working and having them experience a sense of connection with a peer group. Bear in mind a lot of our kids are referred because they've got social, emotional anxiety and they lack confidence, and they've got mental health challenges. So school isn't necessarily a place that they feel they are connected and belong.

So, when we have an intensive process over a school term where young people make new friends, some not having any friends, that's very powerful that they get to take that community with them back to school, and so, schools, it's an honour for us to partner with them, and we see TRACTION as, I guess, a partner in helping young people realise their potential, and they can identify the young people that need that extra support and they know TRACTION and the benefits that it brings. So, they're able to select that right mix of young people for whom to get access to this experience.

Rebecca Archer 

And is there any sort of criteria that the kids have to meet to be able to qualify for the Traction programs?

Sandy Murdoch 

Absolutely. So, TRACTION’s actually a registered charity and we have a particular status called a public benevolent institution, which means we need to provide our support to those who are, in legal terms, you know, experiencing poverty, distress and misfortune.

But what that looks like in practical terms is our schools will select against criteria like are the young people from us sort of experiencing socio-economic challenges? Is there domestic or Any violence in their living environment? Are there drugs and alcohol challenges? Are there neural and learning difficulties? Are there intellectual and physical disabilities? Are there cultural challenges where they're newly arrived to Australia or whatever form of diversity?

And we have this wonderful option at the end which we trust for our schools to make an assessment on, which is just ‘other’. Are they aware of a young person who is experiencing a challenge for which traction would be useful? And we had one of our very first participants was a young woman whose mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she was just going through a tough time and TRACTION was just a wonderful experience for her to sort of recentre and connect and deal with what was going on in her life.

Rebecca Archer 

What sort of impact is there for your organisation when governments. We've mentioned schools already and maybe other agencies become involved?

Sandy Murdoch 

I guess the most important fuel for us to have, besides the opportunity to work with young people who are referred by schools, is the fuel in the tank and the funding to be able to deliver these programs.

So, we've been almost entirely funded by the private sector, businesses, philanthropists, mums and dads and community through fundraising events to do our work. So, when we have partners in those in the world of business, for example, who sponsor us over multiple years, it provides us the certainty to be able to commit to meeting the need in community.

When we have philanthropists who likewise back us with grants and investment and donations to do our work, it means we can deliver on this opportunity for young people. So that is vital.

We're certainly looking for, for stronger partnerships with government. We haven't got any ongoing government funding. And where we can and do align with sectors like health and education to keep our young people well and engaged in learning, like we can really deliver wonderful outcomes.

So that investment from government we're really hopeful for and certainly we know the saving long term for community well and truly justifies the investment in our young people and the investment in them early.

Rebecca Archer 

What other organisations would you like to see become involved with traction and support you?

Sandy Murdoch 

We welcome partnerships and it's really about partnerships for us with organisations like businesses, like people in community who are committed to philanthropy, and government agencies and departments who want to see our young people get the support they need such that they can realise their potential.

And that's better for the young people; it's better for our community. It certainly makes safer, more prosperous communities. When our young people are thriving and we have seen a spate of youth crime and that's been in the press a lot, we can help our young people avoid those sorts of choices with the right support early, and so rather than throwing a lot of money into, I guess, rehabilitation and fixing things, we can invest early and avoid those sorts of problems emerging.

So, an example of a wonderful partnership we have with the corporate sector is a privately owned business. It has a presence around Australia, and their staff are very committed to helping young people get pathways into employment, into industries like theirs and they have a foundation that has supported TRACTION over six years now and that has provided us the opportunity to not only provide access for more young people to our programs, but we've developed a whole new program that helps young people get access to employment with organisations.

So, those partnerships give us the certainty of funding to be able to commit to reaching more young people, and we can't do the work in isolation, and it's the community around our young people that makes all the difference.

So, we're very much about collaboration and partnerships of vital, and it's an honour that organisations see TRACTION as a vehicle through which they can make a difference.

Rebecca Archer

I would imagine over your time you have had a lot of very memorable moments or stories that have resonated with you. I wonder if you wouldn't mind sharing one or two of those that made a real impact for you and made you feel really proud of the work that you're doing?

Sandy Murdoch 

Rebecca, I think one of the first real – it hit me like a ton of bricks, actually – when a young fella said to me that if it wasn't for TRACTION, he wouldn't be here anymore, and he described being a target of some pretty intense bullying, and he was in very dark place at the time, and what TRACTION was able to do is have him rediscover his place in the world and got him focused on what he wanted to achieve, and we were able to connect him to an opportunity with a local business, and he's gone on to get his apprenticeship. He's now employed the kind of young person who was trusted by his employer: first at work, last to leave. They gave him the keys in the first few months of him being there as an apprentice to open and shut the place.

So, I didn't realise we'd actually be saving lives, and that was the first example that had me realise the extent of mental health challenges and how big a problem things like bullying are for our young people.

The other one that stood out for me very early was a young woman who revealed she'll be the first in her family to finish school, and TRACTION helped her realise she really needed to take responsibility for her learning and her behaviour. Just as she was starting grade 11 and grade 12, she made that connection and she was able to finish school, go on to further studies, and it had me realise that TRACTION's helping young people today, but the skills they're getting and the life changing impact is actually going to affect and impact future generations.

So, I know the kind of family she will create and foster with what she's learned, and so for me that's like 50 years, 100 years of impact just happening based on that experience.

Rebecca Archer 

That's so wonderful. Do you also find that participants who've been through the program maybe in later years come back and want to help and want to volunteer or mentor another generation that's coming through?

Sandy Murdoch 

We definitely do, and we work with our schools who often realise that young people, one program attraction has been great, but they might benefit from another. So we get young people who will come back and do subsequent programs and some will come back, as we call them – our student mentors – where they'll be the extra attendee from that school, but playing a different role, working alongside our mentors to support their peers and I guess get a sense of leadership development and giving back to their community.

Even beyond that, we frequently get young people who reach out to us as they've sort of grown into young adults to say, hey, look, look what I'm up to now, and I really appreciate my time at TRACTION. We had a young fellow who's joined the Navy. He always had that goal, and we've got photos of him on board one of our naval vessels going off on a service.

In fact, I caught up today with a young man now who's 23. He did the program nine years ago and he is thriving in a corporate career now, and so, to hear where our young people go and hear their stories and their reflections, and this young fellow actually said to me, like I didn't realise it at the time at TRACTION, what I was learning, what I was getting, but when I look back now, it was so pivotal and it was like a turning point for them.

You know, things like who they choose to hang out with and how important it is to make healthy choices around those sorts of things and, you know, how to keep an open mind to learning and not to see challenges as things that can stop you. In fact, they're opportunities for you to learn more and keep going. So, it's great when we hear from our young people.

Rebecca Archer 

So Sandy, what's next for TRACTION? What have you got in the works? What's coming up?

Sandy Murdoch 

Look, we want to reach More young people, that's for sure. We've got a wonderful program that's working, so a lot of that is around funding and the fuel in the tank to do more, and a theme there for us is around how, as an organisation, do we develop our resilience and our sustainability.

So, we're looking at things like social enterprise, like building an investment and an asset base from which we can generate recurring income that gives us certainty to reach more young people, but we're also growing and taking that path carefully. Part of that is going to new regions like Toowoomba. That is the first step into regions and into rural communities for us, which we're really excited about. Our programs are evolving in the length of time.

We're working with young people too. So, we're working with primary schools now with our IGNITE Program. This is new. We're seeing kids as young as 10, 11 disengaging from school, so they're not even getting to high school. So how do we help them make a really powerful transition into secondary school, so they continue their learning journey?

Our BUILD program in secondary schools, we're looking to continue to grow, and that Pathways to Employment, that CONNECT program we have, we're looking to grow, so we're definitely growing our programs, but it's in the context of a more sustainable and resilient organisation. We need that funding, certainty and independence.

So, we're looking at things like that, but we're also excited about getting our profile up and it's awesome to be able to share a little bit about traction in environments like this, Rebecca, to be honest. So, thank you for having us on, because the more people that find out about us and the impact we're having with young people, we hope that that'll help us to be able to fund the program so that we can reach more young people, and the other part is like, there's a big workforce out there of people that are working with young people for whom we'd love to share what we've learned around how to really positively engage our young people.

So, I guess, not that we can presume we've got all the answers, but we've certainly got some experience, and we'd love to share that in some training type context to sort of engage with others in the sector, whether they be in schools or other youth organisations. Yeah, there's plenty to do, and I guess our thinking now is how do we be around for 50 and 100 years? Because why shouldn't every young person get TRACTION? Why shouldn't schools everywhere have the option to sort of select young people who need that extra support to get this kind of experience.

So, I think we're very keen to be here for the long term. The program's so powerful and impactful and our young people deserve opportunities like this.

Rebecca Archer 

So, on that note, what's the best way for people who are interested in learning more about the journey or businesses and organisations who are maybe keen to partner with you? How do they find you? How can they get in touch?

Sandy Murdoch 

Well, we have a website which we're about to refresh, which is going to be cool, but it's https://traction.community/, that's a great way to find us, and we're on LinkedIn and the socials that is TRACTION for young people is how to find us, and like it's not just about people helping us with money, it's people helping us with their time, it's people being advocates for us, helping spread the work about, this is a solution to some of the problems that we collectively face as a community.

It can be, oh, I might not be able to help today, but I know someone who might be interested. So those introductions and referrals are so very powerful for us. So yeah, we welcome support in whatever form that looks time, treasure talent like any of the above, but most importantly, it's advocacy and helping spread the work of the difference we can make together.

Rebecca Archer 

Sandy, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down and have a chat today. The work you're doing is incredible and it's so important and all the very best of luck to you.

Sandy Murdoch 

Rebecca, well, thank you very much for having me and thank you to your listeners for considering us and taking their time too.

Rebecca Archer 

If you liked this podcast and want to hear more incredible stories, be sure to follow and subscribe to The Remarkables podcast by Grant Thornton Australia on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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I’m Rebecca Archer – thank you for listening.

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