Unsung Heroes: How Gary O’Dine is fighting for a difference

Though many people in our community are active about helping improve the mental health and livelihoods of our young people, one Bunbury man is quite literally fighting for change.

With 42 years training in martial arts, dedicated mental health advocate Gary Odine has spent his life actively implementing change in the South West mental health sector, combining his two passions to develop a gym and safe space to teach self-defence to those who are doing it tough.

His journey in youth work began straight out of school, after having been heavily bullied himself, feeling as though people “weren’t doing enough” to help children who were struggling.

“The youth are our future. Kids were suffering with mental health, bullying, all that sort of stuff, but there wasn’t enough out there,” he said.

He started training as a youth worker at Bunbury PCYC in 1979 and dedicated his time to visiting local schools to teach children how to respond if a friend approached them with concerns for their personal mental health.

“What we did was we approached different schools to talk to them about the signs about suicide,” he said.

“If a kid comes up to you says they are having suicidal thoughts, don’t panic.

“We put in place what you need to do ... and opened their eyes so they knew how to deal with it.”

He opened O’Dine’s Martial Arts Centre (OMAC) in Bunbury in 1994 and also held roles at the South West Aboriginal Medical Service, Life Without Barriers and Goomburrup Aboriginal Corporation over several years in the early 2000s.

But above all, he wanted to take an “active” approach to addressing the topic, feeling as though simply talking to children was not helping them properly absorb the information.

So in 2017 he turned his focus to OMAC, establishing the current Treendale facility together with his friend Jenni Rintoul, creating a space for children to learn how to protect themselves from violence and stand up for themselves entirely free of charge.

“We want to build up their self-esteem and we teach them how to deal with bullies so they feel safe and protected,” he said.

“Show them that when it comes to this situation, this is what you need to do.

“First, use your voice ... but if it comes to the physical side, this is what we want you to do.”

He said the program was also beneficial to bullies as an outlet for their emotions.

“We also try to work with children who might be the bullies to find out what the problems are,” he said.

“If a child sees their parents constantly being violent towards each other, they will think it’s common and that’s how we deal with problems.”

He said more often then not, children from broken homes felt safer in juvenile detention than spending time at home.

“Some of the youth we mentor here are in and out of jail ... they get arrested and they get let off; there’s just not enough help out there,” he said.

“They just end up becoming trapped in this vicious cycle because they don’t want to be in jail but they feel safer in an institution.

“People have all these certificates, all these diplomas, but in the real world that no one’s talking about ... we are trying to change, to get a real outcome and change for these kids.

“Every (child) that joins up here writes on their enrolment forms ‘bullying’ or ‘want to learn self-defence due to bullying’. It’s so sad.”

Alongside with children’s classes, the gym also offers programs for victims of domestic violence.

Mr O’Dine said he was “inspired” by the change he saw in his clientele over time.

“Our programs are free; they’re built on outcomes,” he said.

“When you come here, you aren’t just a number. We want you to better yourself a lot.

“I’ve never treated my gym as a business because this place is a safe place.

“Everyone is treated as a family. People that come here are my family and you look after your family because you don’t know what they’re dealing with.”

Mr O’Dine’s current focus is growing support around the gym in hopes of getting get others onboard to maintain and grow the programs on offer.

“I know we can’t save the world and help everybody but you got to give these people opportunities,” he said.

“While I’m on this Earth I want to help as many people as I possibly can ... and getting support would help tremendously.

“I’m running out of time, and I’m running out of money, so it’d be good to get out there and let people realize what we’re actually doing.”