Hold Yourself Well. This is the driving philosophy beneath Everything Suarve Inc or ESuarve for short, and something this charity founder Jospeh Te Puni-Fromont learned the hard way.

“That’s what we teach the young guys that no matter what, you have to hold yourself well and have enough strength to walk away from peer pressure,” he said.

The Ormeau based not-for-profit helps disengaged youth, many of whom have been referred by the police or courts, through a 10-week Big Brother Program.

And Te Puni-Fromont operates from vast personal experience having lost several friends to suicide, drugs and alcohol from a young age.

By 15, he was expelled from school, at 16 he was caught drug dealing by his police office father and at 20 he moved from New Zealand with $400 to his name and no family and friends in Australia.

“Between the ages of 20 and 29 I was working in the construction industry and fell into a lifestyle of making good money and was living from weekend to weekend doing drugs and alcohol. I was just getting to a point where I started thinking about suicide,” he said.

“I was just trying to get to every weekend and blast myself. I was always a good person but I also made dumb choices. I always had respect and a good work ethic – two things that have gotten me to the point I am today.

“I knew I couldn’t continue the cycle I was in. I just went cold turkey, I had to.”

Joseph Te Puni-Fromont

Te Puni-Fromont said his turning point was when his sister and brother-in-law sent him to a one-day men’s group aimed at teaching males how to deal with emotions.

“I started doing multiple programs, learning different things about myself and how to be more grateful,” he said.

“It’s about dealing with emotions in a safe environment and talking without that fear of being judged.

“When it came to devising my program, I sat down and thought about everything I wished I had been shown when I was younger and my program is built on mental health and wellbeing first and foremost.”

Te Puni-Fromont started the not-for-profit in March 2020 with a $25,000 loan from friends to support eight at-risk youths.  Ten weeks later those eight youths were working in construction and are still in contact today.

The program spiralled and since opening, has helped 142 young people – aged between 15 and 26 – 90 per cent of whom are male. Of those, 31 were identified as high risk of heading into juvenile detention. Only one has re-offended.

Participants are involved in everything from ice baths, meditation, journaling, mock interviews and exposure to potential industries in which they may wish to work.

Ice Bath Therapy

“It costs $1500 a day to lock up one young person. It costs $10,000 per kid to come to our program. On those 30 at risk kids alone, we’ve saved the government $2.2m,” Te Puni-Fromont said.

“Because a lot of young people are homeless, we are now building tiny homes as part of our program to give back to the community especially the communities where the young people are coming from.

“There have been so many times along the way where our doors have almost shut. We are probably at about 30 per cent of our potential at the moment and running on the smell of an oily rag and love and passion.

“With just over $1 million we could help 80 kids a year. In the past year in our area, youth crime rates have dropped by 19.8% which has been attributed to our program.”

ESuarve has been nominated by the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training as one of three finalists out of 800 organisations in the Community Initiative of the Year to be announced on July 22.

Te Puni-Fromont’s vision is for a retreat-style property on the Gold Coast from which to conduct programs for at-risk youth.

“I see myself in every one of these boys and girls when they walk in. And they walk out so proud,” he said.

“Absolutely there are days when we get it wrong and we apologise. We don’t have the answers for everything but we will be honest and authentic.

“This is not a program, this is a whole lifestyle change.”