General News
28 November, 2025
Community group seek sustainable future at EB
Not-for-profit Kidz Flip rebuilding membership to return to Energy Breakthrough kids in tow.
Energy Breakthrough is more than a race for the community group Kidz Flip, but a way to empower vulnerable youth.
Kidz Flip is a not-for-profit based out of the Macedon Ranges which strives to support young people so they can reach their full potential.
Their committee was volunteering at Energy Breakthrough this year, but their eyes were on the future, hoping to expand their membership and reach.
The organisation’s president Stuart Kennedy said Energy Breakthrough was both their “pinnacle event for the year” and a carrot on a stick to get youth involved.
That’s because Energy Breakthrough is more than a race for Kidz Flip, but a way to get youth interested in all the other benefits the organisation has to offer.
That includes peer mentorship, to career advice, mental health support, improving nutrition, and helping young people become valuable members of their community.
“The goal is seeing these guys achieve in life when they feel like they’ve hit a brick wall,” Mr Kennedy said.
It’s a strategy he said brought 36 kids to the program pre-COVID, almost all of whom aged out during the pandemic.
Among them is the now vice president Lachie Flisar who saw that carrot on a stick, getting to race in Energy Breakthrough, and was all in.
From seeing the HPV’s in primary school, to getting a chance to race them with Kidz Flip in 2019, Mr Flisar is an example of the strategy working.
He said the program gives kids the resources and support to achieve their goals.
“It allows them to dream of the bigger picture when they don’t know what’s truly possible,” he said.
Mr Kennedy, alongside Mr Flisar and the committee, are working to keep that experience available for future kids.
“It’s taken a lot of work from Lachie and myself over the last 18 months just to keep the program alive because we know the benefits,” Mr Kennedy said.
When Mr Kennedy joined the Kidz Flip team in 2012 his son’s best friend had died by suicide.
At the time the Macedon Ranges shire was struggling with a high suicide rate which, in 2018, was well above the national and state averages.
“I’ve continued [Kidz Flip] on because I’ve seen what it’s done for my son and I’ve seen what it does for other youth like Lachie and there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing these guys achieve,” he said.
It’s a mission Mr Kennedy said they’re working with Carisbrook Lions Club president Jefferson Hoober to bring to the Central Goldfields Shire.
In the meantime, however, Mr Kennedy encourages the community not to label local kids.
“Give them the opportunity to prove themselves to you,” he said.
“If the opportunity arises support them. It takes nothing at all to tell someone they’ve done a good job.”