Philanthropic funding from the Amanda Flynn Foundation has seen school term three at Logan Village State School start with the introduction of a whole new club.
The CLUB is a program delivered by YFS to vulnerable school children in Logan City.
Spokesperson Rosa Rois said The CLUB stood for communication, learning, understanding and belonging.
“It currently operates in five primary schools throughout Logan, including Browns Plains, and works closely with vulnerable school children to improve their mental health and wellbeing and develop their social and emotional skills,” she said.
Behaviour enhancement leader at Browns Plains State School Claire Peters, said the program had been beneficial for filling the gaps and supporting all children at the school.
“The CLUB fits very much into our school culture and views of working with the individual child to support their social and mental development,” she said.
The grant from the Amanda Flynn Foundation has allowed YFS to expand The CLUB to be delivered in Logan Village, Marsden and Waterford West State Schools until June 30, 2017.
The CLUB was founded four years ago and has engaged over 1000 school children.
Through games, songs, group talks and stories, The CLUB helps young children to build their communication skills, understand and manage complex emotions like anger, fear, anxiety and stress, improve their self-esteem, respect diversity, respond to bullying and build healthy relationships.
The CLUB’s program manager, Michael Carter said it is important to help young children to develop socially and learn how to relate and connect with others.
“The program gives them some tools to use not just now, but later on in life as well,” he said.
“These are basically tools around being able to manage their internal world, their emotions and their thoughts. Children are never too young to start learning about who they are,” he added.
The CLUB usually runs an eight week Little Steps program for students in Prep to Year 3, and an eight week CLUB program for students in Years 4 to 6.
Each program works with groups of maximum eight children improving their ability to manage emotions and social conflict within a group environment.
