Vaughn started with the Horizon House Program in July 2006 when Bendat House Geraldton was first opened. As a shy, lonely and unconfident 17 year old coming from a difficult family scenario fraught with transience and irregularity; Vaughn immediately started to shine through the structure and support provided by our devoted Geraldton Carers.

Within the first months of joining the program Vaughn was enrolled in TAFE and started studying Information Technology. He also took up a part time job to assist with TAFE fee payments and went from being a withdrawn individual to developing positive social connections.

The Progression
After just 6 months within the program it was evident that Vaughn had grown to become a different person, taking great pride in his appearance and making an effort to support other young people within the program, Vaughn began to be seen as the house leader; taking on extra chores and abiding by the house rules. Through the assistance of our house psychologist he also began rebuilding his troubled relationship with his parents and was even drawing encouraging comments from his TAFE teachers.

An Exciting Opportunity
In early 2007 Vaughn was nominated to attend a one week youth adventure camp focused on team building and increasing self confidence. The camp, based just past Harvey in Western Australia’s South West region, consisted of a 12km hike, raft building, a low ropes course and abseiling. Working along with 16 other young people Vaughn learnt the importance of leadership and team work. He was even able to overcome a fear of heights by attempting abseiling for the first time.
One young person was then chosen from the group to attend a ten week expedition in late 2007 run through Raleigh International in Borneo, Malaysia. This young person was Vaughn!! The ten week expedition to Borneo involved 150 young people of different nationalities combining their efforts to not only work on community and environmental projects, but to achieve personal development and learn lifelong skills.

A Life Changing Experience
The expedition to Borneo consisted of three phases: phase one, ‘Community’ located in Ambong where the young people made a gravity water system; phase two, ‘Environment’ located in Daham Valley where the young people assisted the rangers to clear and tidy the forest area and finally; phase three, ‘Adventure” for this part of the camp the young people completed an 8 day trek in Long Pasia, climbed Mount Kinabalu and were accredited with an open diving certificate!!

On reflection of his trip Vaughn was particularly impressed by the local young people in Borneo who were trained at a very young age to handle tough and dangerous situations such as hunting and swimming without any physical support. The biggest challenge Vaughn found was the Adventure phase of the trip having only recently overcome his fear of heights, but after conquering Mount Kinabalu we all think he is unstoppable in achieving whatever he sets his mind to. Vaughn now aspires to return to the Raleigh International Program in four years, when he meets the minimum age criteria, as a camp leader.

The End of the Road
After returning from his intensive experience in Borneo and making some lifelong connections as well as new skills Vaughn set to work catching up on his TAFE study. By early 2008 Vaughn began to sense that he had gained all the skills he required from the Horizon House Project to move on into independent living.

In April 2008 after finding a suitable independent living arrangement Vaughn packed up all of his belongings and moved on into the next chapter of his life. Having seen Vaughn from the early days of our Geraldton house it was particularly moving for our Carers to see the progress that he had made. We still hear from Vaughn and he continues to do very well in all aspects of his life.