Former Blue Mountains youth worker Jarrod Wheatley has been named 2019 NSW Young Australian of the Year.
The 30-year-old social entrepreneur was recognised for his role in founding Street Art Murals Australia (SAMA) – which started in the Blue Mountains – and Professional Individualised Care (PIC), a not-for-profit organisation which pioneered a new model of out-of-home care for foster children with high needs.
PIC has taken a groundbreaking approach in Australia. Before, children who were too traumatised or high-needs for a foster home would generally be placed in a group home where they would be cared for by shift workers and were at risk of becoming institutionalised. Instead PIC places one child in the home of a professional therapeutic carer, who can provide therapeutic intervention and real relationships.
Mr Wheatley said the achievements of these young people are more impressive than any he will ever accomplish.
“It [the Australia Day awards honour] is an opportunity to focus attention on young people who are moving through our out-of-home care system and how impressive it is when one of those young people are able to, despite their background and complex trauma, live a full and meaningful life,” he said.
“That’s a more impressive achievement than I’ll ever achieve in my life.”
Mr Wheatley was also the driving force behind the award-winning Katoomba Street Art Walk, which he has described as “dynamically representing a diverse range of voices in our city’s public art, ultimately making a meaningful contribution to social inclusion”.
Opened in 2015, the street art walk transformed Beverly Place in Katoomba into a tourist hub. It grew from the formation of SAMA which Mr Wheatley helped establish in 2008 when he worked for Mountains Youth Services Team (MYST). Originally called the Blue Mountains Street Art Collaborative, the organisation has seen street artists paint more than 360 murals all over the country, for clients such as Pfizer and Lend Lease.
Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill congratulated Mr Wheatley on “his incredible achievement”.
“Our community can be rightly proud of him and he is a wonderful ambassador for the Blue Mountains,” he said.
“He spent some years running a youth centre here in the Blue Mountains and got to understand very closely the challenges confronting our young people. His approach was to understand, not to lecture, and through that understanding lift young people up, instead of putting them down.”
Mr Wheatley paid tribute to his Blue Mountains beginnings following the awards ceremony in Sydney on Monday night.
“I think I was a youth worker at the ripe old age of 17 at the Upper Mountains Youth Project, before it was even named MYST… [Former MYST manager] Damian Cooper made a huge impact on how effective I’ve been able to be in the social sector. He gave me a lot of room to learn and grow and be able to support young people in the Blue Mountains.”