Testimony Arts LTDRegistered

The CISERR program delivered over 500 hours of direct instruction in 2023 2024, focusing on atrisk, maleidentifying youth (15 18yrs) in Maryborough, QLD. Our 20week initiative fostered functional literacy, numeracy, and social enterprise skills through three interconnected streams: Visual Arts Repair and Restoration Arts Communication and Curation Workshops included screen printing, sewing, painting, filmmaking, woodworking, upcycling and product making culminating in the cocreation of a roving market retail trailer/art van. CISERR operated five days a week across local community venues. Participants worked with professional artists, retired educators, tradespeople and youth workers. Social Enterprise and Life Skills: Functional literacy & numeracy for financial independence. Creative Industries and Curation: Arts communication, design, and exhibition planning. Health and Wellbeing: Delivered through the RAGE and LIVE STRONG programs. Program Highlights YouthLed Social Enterprise: Participants built a market trailer to sell their creations, enabling direct engagement in customer service, branding, and community collaboration. Group Exhibition: 100+ unique works showcased during Fraser Coast Local Youth Week, reinforcing participants' confidence and community recognition. First Nations Knowledge Sharing: Collaboration with First Nations artists, Elders, and youth workers enriched the program's healing and reconciliation focus. One of our core strengths lies in scaffolding independence for youth participants, equipping them with both practical skills and socioemotional resilience. Through programs like Live Strong, we are fostering future thinking and positive communityled behavioural change, enabling young people to envision and pursue meaningful lives. Supporting young people in their community remains central to our approach, as we recognise the holistic nature of wellbeing and the importance of strengthening civic engagement and participation to support sustainable change. Our goals for the future reflect an ambitious yet grounded vision. We will continue to scaffold pathways to employment, leveraging the social enterprise model to provide young people with realworld experience in creating and selling art and artefacts. The mobile trailer will be a cornerstone of our social enterprise, offering youth participants tangible agency to engage with their communities and showcase their talents.