Giz A Break is a registered health promotion charity that wraps youth and social work approach into an off-road touring format. We work with individuals and small groups, from full-day adventures to 7-day camps. Our team consists of skilled and experienced youth workers, outdoor educators, and social workers. Our programs are consciously designed and resourced to support young people with high needs.
Our focus.
Our goal is to support people at risk of poor health and social outcomes to achieve their full potential. We primarily support young people at risk of, or living with, poor mental health and who do not engage well with existing services (or where no suitable services exist).
Our culture.
- We're always on our participants' side. We listen. We support. We focus on our participants' strengths.
- We are committed to providing everyone who engages with us with a safe, healthy, positive experience.
- We highly value the freedom to express ourselves fully, to have fun, to explore, and to take calculated risks.
- We also highly value community that is more than the sum of its parts - one where we listen, care, and actively contribute.
- We foster a nurturing culture in which we feel safe to have open, honest, and constructive dialogue as a means to improve the status quo.
- We support and challenge each other to be the best we can be.
We live and work on Aboriginal land. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land our adventures take place on:
- Yorta Yorta and Bangerang (lower Goulburn River and Murray River)
- Taungurung (western Alpine region)
- Eastern Maar Country (Otways)
- Djab Wurrung and Jardwardjali (Gariwerd / Grampians)
- Barengi Gadjin (Victorian Deserts)
We are acutely aware of, and celebrate, the fact that Aboriginal cultures are the oldest surviving cultures in the world, and we include truth telling in our adventures.
Safety first
The safety and wellbeing of participants and everyone who engages with us, especially young and vulnerable people, is our top priority. You can access our Child Safety & Wellbeing Policy using the button below, and you can also provide us with feedback or make a complaint using the form (see the button below). You're also welcome to write to us on [email protected] or call us on 0401 833 110.
#lessgo
Community Initiatives
So, you'd like to arrange for an adventure or an initiative for your school or community to bring about change for some or many? This is for you.
Independent Adventures
Want to boost your social skills, become more independent, and increase your community participation? Get off screens? Find out about our camps and 1:1 mentoring programs open to anyone, including self-funded and NDIS funded participants.
Custom Adventures
You're after something bespoke in terms of destination and structure? Tag-along or fully catered? Outback or Otways? Find out what we can do and get in touch.
#destinations
High Country
Mountain tops, water falls, crystal clear streams and amazing 4x4 tracks. Oh, and high country huts thrown into the mix as well. Our camps are between October and May, and our 1:1 Adventures go all year around.
Otway Magic
Come along for an unforgettable off-road adventure through the Great Otways. Rainforest, shipwrecks, beaches and waterfalls - all in the one day. This is true magic: The Great Ocean Road from an angle few get to experience.
VIC Deserts
Toboggan down white sand dunes, scale towering dunes in the four-wheel drive, and marvel at the desert spring flowering and sunsets over salt lakes. This is a breath-taking destination - and we bet you didn't even know we had these gems on our doorstep.
Strathbogie Ranges
So close to our base and yet sooooo goooooood! Slippery clay, creeks, rain forest and steep, rocky and rutted tracks. A real adventure playground!
The Rivers
We're so lucky to live in River Country: The Broken and Goulburn Rivers make for wonderful fishing and kayaking destinations, and the Murray's hidden sandy beaches and River Redgum forests are the perfect destination for some respite - and koala spotting!
Gariwerd (Grampians)
A spectacular and unique destination that has stunning rock art, thrilling hikes, refreshing waterfalls, and fantastic 4x4 tracks with views that will stay with you forever.
What do we do?
Giz A Break gives people the break they need, when they need it most. We specialise in delivering outdoor-based health promotion initiatives that we co-design with communities, organisations, and groups. The issues we tackle can be diverse - they include primary prevention, such as the working with young people to build their resilience and so prevent mental health issues down the track, right through to secondary prevention, such as working with people who are recovering from significant illness.
Permission to play.
We’re children at heart - think Pippi Longstocking, and you get the picture. We get excited about stuff. We believe in the good in people. We believe that finding time and space to play is good for young and old. Playing is how we practise being part of a community, coping with setbacks, and celebrating successes. It’s through making experiences in safe environments that we learn how to become resilient, how we learn new, healthier ways of doing things. The purpose of Giz A Break is to create that space.
In it for the right reasons.
We're a not-for-profit organisation and a registered charity with DGR (tax deductible gift recipient) status. This means three things:
- We don't aim to make a profit.
- All our revenue goes towards achieving our purpose.
- Donations can be deducted from your taxable income.
Skilled team & unique service.
Based in Shepparton (northern VIC), we get regional and rural life and everything that comes with it. With experience and qualifications in health and community services coupled with 4x4 certifications, we bring a unique set of skills to the table. Whether you're a school that wants to work creatively and intensively with a specific cohort of students, or whether you're an NDIS participant looking for capacity building initiatives that are different yet complementary to traditional clinical approaches, we've got you covered.
Insured and licensed
Giz A Break is a Licensed Tour Operator with Parks Victoria and also an EcoPass holder with NSW Parks and Wildlife Services. That means we have passed an assessment that enables us to operate guided tours on public land, including national and state parks on the SA boarder right through to the eastern section of the Victorian High Country, and from the parks bordering the Murray River in the north through to the Great Ocean Road in the south. We are licensed for Mungo National Park, Kinchega National Park, Mutawintji National Park, Willandra National Park, the Mt Kosciuszko area in the NSW high country, and a few more areas in NSW, too.