Music, Arts, Martial Arts & Wellbeing
A proposed free, two-year creative wellbeing program for young Australians aged 14–25. We are looking for community partners across Melbourne and regional Victoria to help support three parallel pathways: music, visual arts, and physical wellbeing.
You choose your strand. You keep your work. No competition. No clinical intake process. Just a community-based program where you can create, move, and connect.
Riverun Academy is not a fixed campus and does not have delivery partners yet. We are looking for community organisations who may be able to host, refer into, or support structured cohorts.
Rolling terms with a clear start, finish, and outcome.
Weekly small-group sessions in music, visual arts, or physical wellbeing.
Small groups keep the program practical, social, and supportable.
We are looking for venues and organisations that may be able to host, refer, or support cohorts.
Choose your primary strand — or rotate across all three. Each runs weekly for 8 weeks, in small groups of up to 15.
Weekly sessions using Instrument Ninja, songwriting, live performance, and recording in our mobile studio van. Facilitated by a Registered Music Therapist.
Weekly sessions in drawing, painting, digital art, and zine-making. Evidence-based arts therapy techniques embedded throughout. Facilitated by a qualified arts practitioner.
Weekly sessions in martial arts fundamentals — breath control, movement, ground work, and pad work. Framed as self-regulation and embodied confidence, not competition. No sparring.
All cohorts include two one-on-one check-ins with a qualified youth support worker and a weekly reflection circle connecting all three strands.
Start on Instrument Ninja — our free, smartphone-ready music platform. Complete a short baseline check and tell us what you're looking for.
Join an 8-week rolling cohort once partner venues are confirmed. Pick your strand. Sessions are 90 minutes, once a week, facilitated by trained youth workers and practitioners.
Record in our mobile studio van. Exhibit your art. Build discipline in the physical wellbeing strand. Every participant keeps what they create.
We actively recruit young people from First Nations, CALD, LGBTQIA+, and regional communities. Under-18 participants require parental/guardian consent.
These are target communities and organisations we would like to approach. Riverun Academy does not currently have partners or venues. Cohort availability will depend on partner interest, venue scheduling, referrals, accessibility, funding, and participant demand.
Riverun Academy is designed around a fully equipped mobile multimedia studio van and a 16-seat passenger bus. If community partners are secured, the studio can support venues such as neighbourhood houses, school sites, youth services, health services, and community centres.
Professional audio interface, studio monitors, microphone locker, MIDI keyboard, drawing tablets, dual screens, acoustic treatment, and climate control. Participants record, mix, and create — and keep what they make.
Supervised group transport for participants in inner Melbourne and regional Victoria where public transport access to program sites is limited. Travel to sessions is covered — geographic access is not a barrier.
Music therapy and creative arts interventions improve emotional regulation, social connection, and help-seeking behaviour in young people (McFerran et al., 2020; Rickson & McFerran, 2022).
Gamified digital tools show higher engagement and lower dropout when wellbeing content is embedded in intrinsically motivating activities (Linardon, 2020).
Martial arts training reduces anxiety, improves emotional self-regulation, and builds self-efficacy in adolescents (Harwood et al., 2017; Vertonghen & Theeboom, 2010).
Multiple entry points to wellbeing support reduce stigma and reach young people who would not engage with traditional mental health services.
Riverun Academy is the youth service brand of Riverun Pty Ltd (ABN 65 663 364 154), an Australian company founded in 2022. Our flagship platform — Instrument Ninja — is a free, production-ready music training app accessible via any smartphone browser.
The Academy program is planned to run July 2026 – June 2028. All outcomes data will be published publicly every six months at riverun.academy/insights.