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Waves for Change – Changing Lives, One Wave At A Time

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Waves for Change – Changing Lives, One Wave At A Time

OUR MISSION

By fusing the rush of surfing with evidence-based mind/body therapy, W4C provides a child-friendly mental health service to vulnerable and differently-abled youth living in under-resourced communities. Through access to safe spaces, caring mentors, and a provision of weekly surf therapy sessions, W4C gives children skills to cope with stress, regulate behaviour, build healing relationships, and make positive life choices.

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Our Mission

W4C provides a child-friendly mental health service to at-risk youth living in unstable communities. Through access to safe spaces, caring mentors, and a provision of weekly Surf Therapy sessions, W4C gives children skills to cope with stress, regulate behaviour, build healing relationships, and make positive life choices.

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What an amazing group of humans! The @intlsurftherapyorg convened for the third time in California. Practitioners, researchers and surfers from across the planet uniting to share practice and learning. We’re sad to leave, but excited for the future as we continue to advocate for the widespread use of surfing as a health intervention. When we speak together, we can move mountains. The evidence is growing. The ocean heals! Join the movement today and check out @intlsurftherapyorg. See you in 2020! #isto #surftherapy #gofargotogether

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“When they start, they kids are often a bit solo, and do everything alone. But slowly they practice caring about each other, and form a family!” - #wavesforchange mentor 🤙 A strong sense of connection and belonging is vital to positive mental health. At W4C, our kids practice healthy relationship-building skills like communication, empathy, and trust, which are skills they can use anywhere, anytime, for the rest of their lives to have healthy social connections. #surftherapy #positiveyouthdevelopment 📸 @michellealienor

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A BIG day for Surf Therapy today.
In March 2017 a group of #surftherapy orgs and researchers came to Cape Town. Together, we started a conversation. How could we create a global Surf Therapy community to support practitioners, execute high quality research and advocate for Surfing’s use as a health intervention?
Together we created the @intlsurftherapyorg.
Today, ISTO meets for our third annual conference. We have 140 surf therapy practitioners and researchers together in LA’s South Bay. We’re sharing our methodologies with each other, sharing the results of our collective research, and getting the message to more and more people that the ocean heals.
Join our conversation, join the community and check out @intlsurftherapyorg today.
Go far / Go together.
#isto #surftherapy

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We are THIS excited for a weekend of surf therapy! On Fridays and Saturdays, W4C surf clubs are open to just over 500 children who have graduated from our #surftherapy programme. Each week, they have the opportunity to connect with friends, caring mentors, new skills, and the ocean. We hope you have a chance to do the same this weekend! #positivementalhealth #wellbeing #surf

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“My Power Object is to remind me that I have friends who look after me, and who I can call on even at home.” This week, W4C mentors are helping W4C kids to build positivity anchors! These “Power Objects” are reminders for the kids of positive memories they have of the programme. When they look at or hold their Power Object, it can remind them of these happy memories, of a time when they felt connected, valued, and capable. By remembering the memories linked to these feelings, they can experience the positive feelings all over agajn and feel hope, resilience and joy, even when in stressful situations 🤙🤙🤙

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We are STOKED that the power of #surftherapy and inclusive access to the ocean is being celebrated in the latest episode of @wsl series "Transformed"! Thank you for sharing your stories, @blackgirlssurf @giovannidouresseau & @thesoulkisser 🤙🏽Our partnership with @sentinelocean & @franksolomon to provide youth from local communities in Hout Bay with access to the thrill of surfing and the chance to form healthy, positive self-identities and relationships to help them better cope with stress is featured too - be sure to check it out! 🤙🏽 Thank you to @sentinelocean, Hout Bay Lifesaving Club, @llandudno.lifesaving, @hurley, @reefsouthafrica, @yachtaidglobal, @dunes_beach_restaurant and everyone else who has supported the coaches to change lives, one wave at a time!

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Yewwww! Sharing the stoke at the #wavesforchange pilot programme in Monrovia, Liberia with Pair Surfing, where W4C kids help each other learn to surf and practice vital positive peer-relationship skills like trust, empathy, and communication! This programme is run entirely by locals, who we are stoked to be supporting in their mission to bring positive mental health to their communities 🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽 #surftherapy #positiveyouthdevelopment #mentalhealth #liberia

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"Surfing gives us a break from the house and from all the violence that's happening all around you." - WAVES, a multiple award-winning short film by @jessieayles following three girls from one of South Africa's most violent communities and their connection to the ocean and surfing, is now available to watch on @vimeo! Be sure to check out this powerful insight into the lives of children who experience hope and joy in the ocean, as a respite from the violence, fear, and stress they live with daily. Thank you to these #wavesforchange girls for sharing their stories, and to @jessieayles for sharing their story with the world!

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Mid-week stoke! Our community mentors bring the healing power of #surftherapy to communities where access to the sport of surfing, and the ocean, is rare. We are excited to be training and supporting local youth from ocean-side and under-resourced areas to share and model positive, healthy behaviours with children from their communities to bring about social change and development! If you would like to support our mission to activate youth to be change makers in their communities, get involved at our website 🤙🏽 #sportforgood

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A huge welcome to big wave legend @mcnamara_s, #wavesforchange style! Thank you Garrett for supporting #surftherapy and positive mental health through access to the ocean! We're so stoked to have you, @laureus_sa and @mercedesbenzsa supporting our programmes! #sportforgood

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Attempting something new and possibly scary, like surfing or standing up for yourself, is so much easier when you feel supported and not alone! Many of our kids experience environmental adversity (like poverty or violence), which can make them feel isolated and stressed and lead to unhealthy choices, which reinforces their negative feelings and exposure to challenges. At W4C, they are connected to caring peers and mentors who support and celebrate them as they master new positive behaviours and feelings, which disrupts the reinforcing cycle, and opens up new ways of being and feeling! This is the power of #surftherapy and positive #mentalhealth 🤙🏽 Join us at the #linkinbio to change lives, one wave at a time! 📸 @michellealienor

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Waves for Change and @stokedresearch have spent the last two weeks working with 10 inspiring individuals, representing five #positiveyouthdevelopment organizations, from Sierra Leone to deliver evidence-based child-friendly mental health programmes in Freetown! We're stoked to know and learn from such an epic group of community change-makers, who have joined the #wavealliance family of six other #surftherapy programmes around the globe, who are all working to bring positive mental health to youth in their communities 🤙🏽

I Am the Engine’ is a Red Bull documentary series that portrays ten inventors and visionaries who are taking risks and overcoming failure to find solutions that benefit their communities. Waves for Change mentors Chemica and Lux are community-based mental-health practitioners, who are changing lives of youths in their communities through the power of surf therapy. Watch their story, and be inspired!

Up to 20% of young South Africans are effected by Post Traumatic Stress. Waves for Change is pioneering a winning formula of surfing and evidence based therapy programming to break the cycles of violence that keep South Africa’s youth from their true potential. Video by Florian Bison Photography – Winner Le Book Creative Award 2015