Shooting Stars has launched its Seven Sisters program which provides Aboriginal girls and women with opportunities to develop positive social and emotional wellbeing skills and preventative mental health strategies.
The ten-week program uses netball as a space to teach participants emotional regulation strategies. Participants will learn how to recognise and name their emotions, develop strategies for cheering themselves up or calming down and learn how to build healthy relationships, both on and off the court.
The program has been developed in line with Aboriginal concepts of health, which applies a holistic model of connection to seven different spheres of life: culture, land, physical self, mental self, community, family/kinship and ancestors/spirituality.
The program is being piloted with 16 participants in Narrogin across the two primary schools and run by three Noongar women, Seven Sisters Coordinator Jade McGuire, Narrogin Program Assistant Taya Olman and Narrogin Trainee Latia Kickett.
Shooting Stars Research Manager, Rose Whitau said it is great to see this project come to fruition.
“Through our Yarning Circles, our organisation was able to recognise that bullying was a recurring theme as a barrier for school attendance across our sites and that our participants struggled with regulating their emotions,” said Whitau.
“The Seven Sisters program was developed to equip our participants with the skills to respond and adapt to emerging challenges as they progress through the life course.”
“The program incorporates seven characters who personify a connection to each of the seven spheres. Whilst participants will affiliate with at least one character, the program works to ensure they develop strategies to connect with every aspect on the sphere wheel.”
“We are so grateful to the two primary schools in Narrogin for enabling us to launch the pilot program and wish to acknowledge Wiradjuri artist Charlotte Allingham for her beautiful representation of our characters.”
Shooting Stars plans to implement the Seven Sisters program to all primary school Shooting Stars sites in 2021, with the hope to launch an adapted version for Shooting Stars high school participants the following year and then open the program up to regional Netball WA clubs.
