FOLLOWING an uncertain couple of months it has been confirmed that youth counselling service ‘jupiter’ will continue to provide care and support to the youth of Port Stephens for the foreseeable future.

Prior to the announcement, fears were held the service would be forced to close on 31 August.

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jupiter is an initiative born from Caring for Our Port Stephens Youth (COPSY) in 2019.

jupiter’s mission is to provide “youth mental fitness opportunities” such as free counselling services and educational workshops for the youth of Port Stephens.

jupiter is an early intervention service, aimed at helping young people address issues of mental health and wellbeing at an early age and seeking to equip them with tools that will aid their resilience as they grow, hopefully circumventing their issues from developing into harmful behaviours.

While jupiter has been incredibly well received by the community and the young people who have benefited from their service, the grants that initially allowed them to operate are no longer available to them, and finding replacement funding proved challenging.

“We’ve all worked so hard to create this for the young people, and it’s been difficult to face the possibility of having to just stop,” said jupiter Operations Manager April Saunders.

“It’s frustrating that the grants are more easily available to start a brand new endeavour, but it’s so much harder to find funding to keep something going.

“Fortunately some local businesses and charitable groups really have been very generous and enable us to keep our doors open.

“We’re really grateful to be able to continue this work.”

One such local organisation was the Nelson Bay CWA, who heard on the radio of jupiter’s funding challenges and donated $2000.

Jupiter offers a free counselling service to young people aged twelve to 25, along with recreational programs and personal training sessions.

They operate out of centres in Raymond Terrace, Tanilba Bay and Salamander Bay.

By Lindsay HALL