Welden & Coluccio Lawyers is proud to announce they are again partnering with the Ice Factor Spectacular as gold sponsors, helping to keep “at-risk” kids in schools through ice hockey.

Welden & Coluccio Principal Jason Coluccio said keeping kids in the classroom is more important than ever.

“Low-skilled jobs are disappearing and stable employment is getting harder to find, so the next generation will need to be adaptable and show they can take on new challenges with ease,” Mr Coluccio said.

“In a sporting-mad nation, Ice Hockey is a great way to test out young people, because the game is largely alien to us.

“It’s a great leveller – no matter how good a kid might be at footy or cricket, that soon goes out the window when you put them in ice-skates for the first time.

“That experience humbles students, forces them to work together as they build a new skill in a fast and exciting game,” Mr Coluccio said.

“These are invaluable traits employers look for in the leaders of tomorrow.”

Welden & Coluccio Principal Greg Welden agreed, saying his own experiences playing sport at school helped lay the foundation for a successful career.

“Hope and confidence are the most important gifts you can give a young person. A little bit of hope at the right time can change someone’s life,” Mr Welden said.

“Forcing kids to stay in school only builds resentment, but if you give kids a reason to believe in their own abilities and show them the possibilities school can open up, it becomes a whole new game.

“You can literally see the Ice Factor transform young people, from their first nervous push onto the ice, to lightning fast runs at goal, that on-rink development transfers to the classroom,” Mr Welden said.

While there is considerable emphasis on teaching the skills of ice hockey, the students are also given tasks to help in the development of literacy and numeracy skills, including team management, keeping statistics, producing a newsletter, fundraising, and developing promotional material are designed to teach the students vocational skills, while also adding to the sustainability of the program.

“Welden & Coluccio are proud to support this incredible program and help give back to the city that made us the people we are today,” Mr Coluccio said.

The seventh biennial Ice Factor Spectacular, the program’s gala fundraiser, takes place on 14 September at the Hilton Adelaide Ballroom. Tickets are available from icefactor.net

 *Welden & Coluccio Lawyers is a specialist Wills and Estates firm, recognised by Doyle’s Guide and twice finalists in the Telstra Small Business Awards. Both raised in working class families in suburban Adelaide, Greg and Jason are proud to support grass roots initiatives to help empower at-risk youth in the community.

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We love being part of the vibrant community that is the City of Prospect.  Our involvement in the ‘Tourrific Prospect Street Party’, this year held on 17^th January, is an important way that we are able to engage with locals and other business owners all along Prospect Road and in the immediate vicinity.  While we have previously used this event as an opportunity to educate the community in the importance of having a Will; this year we elected to use the event as a means to promote the amazing work of Marie Shaw QC and the Ice Factor. 

As many of our clients and colleagues are aware, Welden & Coluccio Lawyers made a commitment as gold sponsor for the Ice Factor; a life and vocational skills program designed to empower ‘at-risk’ youth, in 2016.   While financial donations are a vital way that businesses can support programs such as this, we wanted our donation to be more than simply a financial one.

Welden & Coluccio Lawyers is dedicated to actively assisting the charity to grow so that the Ice Factor can expand its influence, making a difference in even more lives.

I think everyone in attendance will agree that it was a fantastic evening.  We wish to extend our thanks to the Ice Factor volunteers who joined us to assist in the event; especially Humphrey B Bear who, as the Ice Factor mascot, provided entertainment for young and old alike.  Special thanks are also extended to our friends at Iannella & Co., Future Homes and the Caledonian Hotel who generously assisted in the provision of prizes for our raffle.

Ice Factor is a life skills program, originally founded in 2005 to assist ‘at risk’, disengaged or disadvantaged teenagers identified by high schools.  With ice hockey as a focus, the students are mentored; improving literacy and numeracy abilities while developing skills to foster leadership, respect, humility and ambition.  Currently 18 high schools and 300 students are involved.  Since the program was established more than 2,000 lives have been changed.

The work of lawyers is a profession that for many people is shrouded in misconception.  On the one hand the practice of Law is viewed in hushed, sacrosanct whispers, the notion that that has us doing some pretty special things; although exactly what that is remains a mystery.  On the other hand, our work is evaluated with utter disdain; the notion that, when we are not getting the bad guys out of gaol, we are profiteering from the misery of others.   As with most stereotypes the truth sits somewhere in the middle, and sometimes well outside of these perceptions.  Irrespective of the ideas of the general community,   I know this, that the vast majority of lawyers are inherently good, community minded people with a drive to make this world a better place.

A few weeks ago I was presented with an offer to make a difference.  While I firmly believe that through my chosen vocation of Law I already make a positive difference to the lives of my clients, this offer, humbly communicated in an email from the immensely inspiring Marie Shaw, was a little unique.   Too often as lawyers, the assistance we provide is reactive.  That is to say that we come to aid in a capacity that has us metaphorically ‘putting out fires’.  What if, we could prevent these fires from being lit in the first place?  What if, we could redirect this energy so that it could have a positive outcome instead?  Of course I am speaking of an innovative solution, a program designed to not only make a measurable difference in the lives of young South Australians but one which might actually prevent crime before it even occurred.

Ice Factor is that solution.

Marie’s email forced me to think about my own story.  It encouraged me to ask the important question of how I, the working-class son of Italian migrants, well surpassed the achievements of my ancestors, to study Law and build a successful practice in this field?

I didn’t do it on my own.

More importantly; I couldn’t do it on my own.

In fact, left to my own devices, I might easily have turned to a life of crime.  You see, as my parents and my teachers will attest, the sixteen-year-old version of myself was no angel.  In the end though, it was the love of my parents and the support of my school community of St Michael’s College that made the difference for me.  You see, I knew that I had people in my corner, a whole community behind me and this alone made the difference.

Not every young person is blessed with what I had.  Alienation, hopelessness and a sense of feeling disenfranchised; symptoms of poverty and family disintegration; are too often the inevitable precursor to a life that rolls into crime.  Address these issues and you are well along the way of reducing crime and creating citizens who will make a positive contribution to society.

Ice Factor makes a difference.

On a very personal level, Marie’s email was a call to Be that difference.  It was about giving back, but more importantly, it was about offering a real sense of hope to young people who live daily a life devoid of hope. It takes a village to raise a child.  When this fails Ice Factor becomes that village.

To learn more about the Ice Factor program, and to offer your support, please go to www.icefactor.net .