In June 2025, the Network of Alcohol and Other Drugs Agencies (NADA) 2025 Conference celebrated the sector’s leaders in their prestigious award ceremony. We are very proud to share that our Guiding Rural Outback Wellbeing (GROW) program won ‘Excellence in Health Promotion’. This award represents years of hard work, persistence, and our strong commitment to supporting the communities we serve.
What is GROW?
The GROW program is a Royal Flying Doctor Service initiative that strengthens community resilience by addressing mental health, alcohol, and other drug challenges in rural and remote areas. It includes school-based education and wellbeing programs, an innovative aquaponics initiative that supports STEM learning and therapeutic horticulture, and community engagement activities that improve access to health and wellbeing services. GROW empowers communities through early education, prevention, and locally tailored support.
How does GROW support schools?
The GROW Aquaponics Program supports schools with ‘GROW Units’ that combine aquaculture and hydroponics to form a sustainable source of food production. The RFDS’s therapeutic horticultural framework promotes healthy dietary and lifestyle choices, students’ learning, avenues for enterprise and fundraising, and – importantly - early education and intervention for mental health, alcohol and other drugs. Between 2023-24, our team helped about 200 students become regular participants.
What about the wider community?
The GROW Community Program provides wellbeing education, support pathways and facilitates GROW Community Days that bring health and wellbeing services to isolated communities. We have aquaponic sites in Dubbo, Gilgandra, Lightning Ridge, Warren, Trangie, Cobar, Wilcannia, Gulargambone and Menindee. They provide enormous opportunity to develop new avenues for community unity and wellbeing.
Our GROW and Mental Health Alcohol and other Drugs (MHAoD) teams also deliver between six to eight GROW Community Days (Health and Wellbeing Services Expos) annually. These days break down barriers to accessing critical resources, knowledge, and support in rural and remote communities. We bring together vital health and wellbeing services that don’t typically have an in-person presence to share information and referral pathways in a family fun day environment.
