Sydney, Australia - As part of the Community Connections project, UPF-Sydney's key grassroots effort, a community capacity-building workshop on Sept. 10 featured guest presenter Jonathan Duffy, CEO of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Australia.
Jonathan is responsible for agency programs not only in Oceania but also for the southern part of Asia. One of his concerns is reducing at-risk behavior in young people. He has extensively researched resiliency in young people and has presented at numerous conferences on resiliency both in Australia and overseas, and has published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
He was available one Saturday to give this training to UPF staff and key community and youth leaders. All participants were inspired and impressed with his sincere hands-on presentations backed up by his life-long work in developing resilience for disadvantaged youth. Jonathan encouraged everyone present to start implementing what he has learned, the idea of connecting people around us, so that resilience of individuals and communities can develop.
UPF-Sydney would like to be a partner with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in this quest to change the community, social, and national culture in Australia into a culture of peace by developing resiliency in individuals, families, and communities.