THE entire community is invited to put its hands up to reconnect and create a new map for the future, with the revival of Hands Up Casterton.

Launched in 2019, Hands Up saw more than 100 residents from all walks of life, including parents and grandparents, educators and community organisation leaders, come together over two days to create a map for building on the social and educational future for the region – particularly its young people.

Getting off to a great start, Hands Up saw the creation of the Casterton Community Garden and Community Walking Group – both surviving the global pandemic – but further initiatives were stalled or permanently shelved through the pandemic lockdowns.

Earlier this year, Kane Forbes was appointed the new community liaison for Hands Up Casterton and tonight and tomorrow morning, is looking forward to hosting a new gathering for the revival of the initiative.

“Hands Up is a community-led and run initiative – my role is simply to be a central contact point for everyone, a way of connecting like-minded individuals or organisations together, helping to get information out to the rest of the community or connecting with services to help get projects off the ground,” Mr Forbes said.

He said the great benefit of the Hands Up project, was its ability to bring like-minded individuals and organisations together, to create the greatest impact for the community.

“I guess the thing that we really want to emphasise, is that individuals and even organisations all have great ideas, but there can be less impact and less success, if you’ve got two or three different organisations all trying to promote the same idea,” Mr Forbes said.

“Hands Up brings everyone together at a central contact point … many hands make light work, strength in numbers, is what we are here to achieve.”

You can also follow the progress of Hands Up and join in the conversation, by following Hands Up’s regular, fortnightly column, which appears in the Casterton News from next week.