THANKS to a partnership between three organisations, teenagers will be given a helping hand to get their driver licence.
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Bathurst RSL Club will provide financial support to Bathurst Young Mob, who have engaged Birrang Enterprises to provide professional driving lessons to kids who have a Learner licence.
Coordinator of Bathurst Young Mob, Shona Kennedy, said that the program was about helping young people who face challenges in learning to drive.
This could be for any number of reasons, including financial disadvantage, lack of access to a vehicle or no one with free time to teach them.
"It is really about trying to give kids an opportunity that they might not have," she said.
"It is mostly to support their outlook for employment, because a licence can break the cycle of disadvantage."
Ms Kennedy said she has seen how life-changing a licence can be, which is why she is so passionate about providing access to lessons.
The program will be offered to between 10 and 15 students from Denison College Kelso High campus, who can be part of it for a year.
They will undertake lessons on Wednesdays outside of school, with instructors from Birrang picking them up from their homes.
Ms Kennedy said it wasn't the first time Birrang had helped Kelso High students gain access to driving lessons.
"They just understand our community," she said.
Bathurst RSL president Ian Miller and marketing manager Janneke van der Sterren said the club was pleased to support the Bathurst Young Mob further, having already assisted with the group's Health and Wellbeing Expo.
They were looking for a way to further help when Ms Kennedy suggested the driver education program.
"Shona came back to us with the idea for doing some driver training because that can be the difference for people who don't have access to a car or the funds for driving lessons," Ms van der Sterren said.
"We thought it was a good tangible thing that we could do to make a difference."
Mr Miller said the programs was also a way to support young people in Bathurst, who are "the future of the RSL".
"The RSL has a bit of an image of being for older people, so it is really, really important to the RSL to be part of the young community," he said.
