Welcome to

Connect Project

(formerly Mind & Body)

A 5-week youth program designed for 10 boys aged 14 to 16.

In this program, you’ll learn how to:

Communicate effectively
Train your mind
Defend yourself

You will practice three foundational life skills:

Interpersonal Communication

Mindfulness Practice

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Self-Defence

Why?

Together, these skills & practices can strengthen your body and mind,
as well as your ability to communicate & connect with others.

Connect with others, yourself, and your body.

Get in touch

Leroy Wiseman (right) – Principal Facilitator of Connect Project

Interpersonal Communication

Needless to say, communication is an essential skill in all areas of life. Despite this, many of us find it difficult to share what we really think and feel with others.

In this program, you’ll learn how to communicate more confidently, listen actively, and connect collaboratively as a team.

You will learn what open, honest and meaningful communication looks like, and how to create a safe and supportive space for others. These skills can help you build stronger relationships, resolve conflicts, and achieve your goals more effectively.

Informed by five years of experience working with groups and individuals, Leroy is an experienced mental health group facilitator and provisional psychotherapist. He has significant experience working with youth, having co-created the suicide prevention peer support program ‘Open Up’ in 2017 alongside Northern Beaches-based charity One Eighty Inc.

Leroy has diverse experience creating and delivering adult and adolescent learning in the mental health and wellness industry. This includes contributing to and delivering trainings, workshops, courses and programs on communication, relationships, group facilitation, peer support, mental health, mindfulness, meditation, men’s mental health, and other topics.

Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness is a practice that involves paying attention to one’s present-moment experience (e.g. thoughts, feelings), without judgement.

This seemingly simple practice can help you reduce stress and anxiety, improve your mood, and enhance your experience of life.

By learning to be more present and aware, you can cultivate self-awareness and connect with a greater sense of inner calm.

Mindfulness is simply a state of open, nonjudgmental, and nondiscursive attention to the contents of consciousness, whether pleasant or unpleasant. Cultivating this quality of mind has been shown to modulate pain, mitigate anxiety and depression, improve cognitive function, and even produce changes in gray matter density in regions of the brain related to learning and memory, emotional regulation, and self awareness (Harris, 2011).

_{Gracie Humaita Mona Vale (Saturday Location)}

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Self-Defence

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport emphasising submission grappling and ground fighting techniques.

It’s a great workout that can improve your strength, flexibility, and endurance while teaching you how to realistically defend yourself in a physical altercation. BJJ is also a mental discipline that can help you feel stronger and more self-confident.

But more than that, it’s a lot of fun.

BJJ is taught in a team culture expounding social values of loyalty, teamwork, camaraderie and respect, and is commonly perceived by proponents as offering “a strong philosophy to live by” with potential for collective, and individual well-being and health (Gracie, 2010).

Leroy is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, with five years of training experience. He teaches kids and adult classes at Gracie Humaita in Mona Vale.

BJJ can feel like magic, because it allows a smaller and/or weaker person to defend themselves against a larger and/or stronger person. This is because BJJ doesn’t rely on strength, but on utilising momentum, leverage, and the maximally efficient use of energy, to physically subdue, control and ‘submit’ an aggressor if necessary.

Submissions comprise joint locks and chokes, which may be used in a self-defence situation.

Key Program Details

The program runs for 5 consecutive weeks, with the group meeting twice per week (on Tuesday and Saturday) for 90 Minutes.

Location: Mona Vale

Times:
Tuesdays 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (Group Communication & Mindfulness Meditation)
Saturdays 1:00 – 2:30 pm (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu)

Limited to 10 boys aged 14 to 16.

Get in touch

Course Dates & Availability

April Course

(4 places left)

Dates: 11th April – 13th May
(Starts first week of school holidays)

May Course

(7 places left)

Dates: May 30th – July 1st
(During school term)

Join us!

Join a fun and supportive group environment

Gain a set of foundational life skills and practices

Connect with other boys who share similar interests and goals

And learn how to:

Communicate effectively
Train your mind
Defend yourself

So, what are you waiting for?

Sign up fo Connect Project today and connect with your best self!