On Friday 24th March the #hardcorehorowhenua team came to Manawatu College to discuss social change when it comes to alcohol and young people.

Hardcore Horowhenua is an initiative of the 'Rethink Teen Drinking and Social Supply Committee' for the Horowhenua. 

The two speakers Richie Hardcore and Ramon Naran spoke to the students about their journey's with alcohol growing up, with the message that its ok to not drink and still have a good time.

If asked for his life motto, Richie Hardcore would be likely to point you towards one of the many tattoos on his arm: “PMA till I’m DOA”. It’s the title of a hardcore song, but the idea behind the acronym, Positive Mental Attitude, is the approach that Richie uses to tackle all aspects of his life, and hopes to instil the same attitude in people he comes across on a daily basis.

While no stranger to heartache and hurt, Richie believes with the right support and attitude, that a positive life is possible through any hardship. With a loyal and growing social media presence, Richie uses this platform to actively promote awareness and activism and engage in topical conversation, which he does with boundless energy and a killer smile.

For Richie and countless others around the world, fight sports provide a healthy outlet for the hardship and frustrations that life hands us. As such, Richie’s fighting career spans more than 20 years from martial arts tournaments to Muay Thai titles. Now he’s hung up the gloves, he fights for social change rather than titles and trophies.

As a self-confessed ‘pragmatic idealist’, Richie channels his energy into doing his best to leave the world a slightly better, healthier and happier place than how he found it. He does this as a Muay Thai, Boxing and personal trainer, community worker reducing drug and alcohol harm, campaigner against domestic and sexual violence, radio host and advocate for social change.

Ramon Naran has worked with young people for the last twelve years in many different capacities from facilitating groups, leading youth advisory and participation processes, mentoring to coordinating events and developing youth developing youth development tools and models. 

In 2010 Ramon took on the role of Action Education Manager, which has seen him facilitate and develop several programmes, including Drama Toolkit, the Breakdown DJ Programme, and spoke word poerty workshops, while supporting a team of youth workers and facilitators.  

Ramon is a leader when it comes to youth engagement and youth facilitation and has years of experience in working with young people.

This was an eye opening experience for our students and we were lucky to have such a fantastic initiative visit our school.