Dozens of players engaged in a swag of activities and education sessions delivered by the QRL wellbeing team during recent junior carnivals in Bundaberg.
Our entire team, including myself in the South East region, Coco Quirke in the North and our state wellbeing manager Trish Walding were lucky enough to join QRL Central region manager Ryan Charles in his patch amid the QRL Central rebel State Development Series and QRL Central Under 17 Girls Championships.
More than 150 players rotated through some physical activities that form part of the GRIP (Gratitude, Resilience, Intent, Pride) program, in condensed half-hour sessions in gaps in their playing schedule.
Trish also led an hour-long education session for a number of Wide Bay girls, tackling topics such as nutrition, body image, social media safety and other issues affecting teenage girls in an important transitional time of their lives on and off the field.
We always target our education sessions for the specific demographic, meaning what we deliver can differ slightly between girls and boys.
For girls on social media, which can be so influential, it is more about awareness of the type of content they absorb and how they filter through it to look after their emotional safety.
It was great to see so much buy-in across the board from the players, and a massive thank you to all the coaches who also got involved and helped us reinforce the messages being passed on.
This was the second time we've been able to get together for a wellbeing 'blitz' after getting into the Outback for the Adrian Vowles Cup carnival in Charleville in February.
Getting to these events, on top of our usual activities with our local clubs, is an important part of making sure we get the wellbeing message out to people all over the state.
Coco is doing a great job in the North making his way around to remote communities such as Bamaga and throughout the Torres Strait, and we're always looking at more ways we can assist all of our rugby league participants.
We're now looking delivering the GRIP program at schools later this year, so even more people can get some benefit from QRL's wellbeing offering.
Main image: Trish Walding delivers an education session in Bundaberg. Photo: Ryan Charles
