MANA Youth Project

09/06/2026

⭐SCHOOL HOLIDAY ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE HERE! ⭐

This School Holidays we are focusing our time and energy between 2 Locations. We have workshops happening Mornington at Mornington Community House and Chelsea at Longbeach Learning and Activity Centre.

Longbeach will be handling bookings on their end, that is why I haven't attached Prices and Links to those Workshops yet. It will be run through their Website and we will update this post when they are live.

🌐Mornington is good to go, and you can book through our Website here:

Or through the 3 Facebook Event Pages we have set up:

Week 1 Potion & Wand Craft Workshop (Mornington)

Week 2 - Manga Character Illustration Workshop with Emily

Week 2 - Worldbuilding & Creative Writing Workshop: For Fiction Writers & TTRPG Game Masters

If you plan on coming, and make a booking, please click Going in the Event Page too.

For this Holidays we wanted to offer a couple of the workshops that have gone well in the past in order to give a fair introduction to the Akademy Clubs we are bringing to these Locations - Mornington in Term 3, and hopefully Longbeach in the near future.

09/06/2026

⭐We still have a few weeks left of Term 2 Before School Holidays Start - which we will be making announcements about VERY soon⭐
Also don't forget we will have our MANA Akademy Afterschool Clubs Free Trial Day - Mornington in our first Week.

Here is our Term 3 Club Flyer - Membership is open now.
Each Akademy Pass Term Membership is a very accessible $130 per term (about $13 a session!)

What do you get in your Akademy Term Pass Membership?
https://buy.stripe.com/eVq00ja9P99W0mw6PE1B60m

✅A new themed Season every Term with it’s own immersive narrative, Weekly Quests & Rewards - Term 3 will be Gods & Heroes of Greek Myth!

✅Stay connected to friends & mentors through our Akademy Discord server across all Locations - Monitored by our Mentors so there is no risk

✅Opportunities to ‘Rank-Up to leadership positions, representing your Club.

🔰Our Gamified LIFE-RPG System is all about developing real world skills and passions by levelling-up what is already within.

🧭Earn Focus Points to Level-Up in your passions, unlock Rank Rewards and More.

🪙Earn Resource Points to spend at our Depot. with all sorts of QoL loot drops - from stickers, patches, pins, a whole Gear System and more!

So, what are you looking forward to most?

08/06/2026

This is pretty worrying, and for those low-life creepers who profit off the creation of these grooming apps and grooming bots - what a sad life you live that this is what you put your energy into.

In this day and age, we are facing a polycrisis - that is - multiple crises happening simultaneously. A.I Psychosis is among them.

It is more important than ever that parents, and those responsible for the welfare of children empower them to access mentors and those in the community who can foster a positive, nurturing, co-creative environment where they can partake in the sharing of intergenerational wisdom and guidance.

Otherwise, these people? These predatory apps? They will be there to pick up the slack.

Parents, this is real and you need to be aware of it. What are your thoughts on this??

Full article here>> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/25/schoolboys-ai-girlfriends/

08/06/2026

The Core Programs Page on our Website will give you a rundown on both our Pathfinder Program & MANA Akademy Afterschool Clubs.

For enquiries about 1on1 Outreach Mentorship outside of our Pathfinder Program - please contact us directly. We understand that our tailored programs do not meet all needs - our 1on1 Outreach services strip all that back to the core philosophies and centre in on more critical challenges facing young people who may need the guidance of an older, more experienced Mentor in the community.

Contact us today.
Both Male and Female Mentors available.

Learn about our Core Programs including our Pathfinder Mentorship Program & Afterschool Akademy Clubs

08/06/2026

You can contact us directly on our Website with your mentorship or program enquiries. You can even select Which Mentor you wish to contact by selecting 'Mentor Rick' or 'Mentor Emma' - this will help us determine who you are looking to connect with, or who you wish to link in with for your Pathfinder Program Journey.

Send us a transmission | Enquiry about our Programs and Services.

07/06/2026

05/06/2026

For the last 7 Months Mentor Rick has been working closely with Longbeach Learning and Activity Centre, running 2 Back-to-Back Dungeons & Dragons Groups of Teen/YA every Friday Afternoon and Evening.

It has been such a great journey so far, and continues on.

As I always do, running things in a unique way, I wanted to hold a space for less Chaotic style of play, so we based our world in the Obojima setting created by @1985 Games. It is heavily inspired by Studio Ghibli, Zelda, Avatar and more. [Mind you, it is still chaos].

But one of the aspects of our Hypothesis is Bridging each players individual personality and skills with their characters, and vice versa.

In one of our sessions 2 Weeks Ago, one of our Participants who play as a Rogue - and is prone to stealing - as Rogues do; met an NPC (non-playable character) who was a Teenager running away after stealing from a shop.

Our plucky rogue talked to the NPC and reflected with the group about a time in their life where they stole from a shop and was forced to return it by their mum.
They then gave advice to the NPC about doing the right thing, advocated for the NPC when returning the item, and then reflecting about how their character (and themselves), would think twice now about what they steal and whether it affected their virtues of integrity.

This is just one of the positive reflections we have seen within our groups this last 3 Terms at Longbeach, and I have been honoured to get to know each and every one of our players.

The adventures continue tonight.

04/06/2026

Most of our community has already met or chatted with our Founder and Head Mentor Rick.

Rick has been driving MANA Youth Project for the past decade here on the Mornington Peninsula - the creator of all of our Frameworks, Programs and Services (and 1001 other roles over that time).
Rick has mastered many aspects of the Archetypes present in our Life-RPG Framework - however he still has his Primary and Secondary ARC skills and Focus.

Mentorship with Rick is more focused on philosophical & existential conversations, sharing of wisdom, knowledge and skills, life goals, and of course, purpose, identity, self-confidence and self-esteem building.
If you are looking for a Mentor to kick the football with or bounce the basketball with, you may need someone else - he will go on short hikes - but you may have to channel your warrior skills to support HIM! But maybe that is a good thing.

Rick has mentored over 100 young people in that time, whether through 1on1 Outreach Mentorships, our Pathfinder Program, MANA Akademy Clubs and through other endeavours within schools and community centres across the Southern Peninsula.

Read about Rick - and check out his Mentor Folio here:
https://manayouthproject.wixsite.com/manayouthproject/mentor-folios-mentor-rick

*A Mentor Folio is like a Mentors Resume, but using the same system that our Pathfinder Students use to track their own Archetypes, Virtues, Skills, Limits and Focus Domains.
It is a great opportunity to customise your Mentorship Journey before you have even started.

Quote "Mentor Rick" when you send us your enquiry and we will have him reach out for a Session Zero Meeting.

Mentor Rick Bolands Folio - Choose Your Mentor