LOCAL LIFE
ONE OF THE HILLS FINEST...
Tara is passionate about helping the Hills community. by Lorna Gordon
Tara Gleig is a local woman through and through. She was born and bred in Castle Hill, attended Castle Hill Public School and Castle Hill High School, where she was vice captain. From a young age she knew she wanted to help the community and be someone who people could look towards for help.
After high school, she began a psychology degree at Macquarie University. While she enjoyed the course, it wasn’ t exactly what she felt she should be doing, so changed to do a Bachelor of Social Science and Counselling at a different university.
This decision changed her path and opened the door for her to work with young people through youth work, allowing her to strengthen communities and spread a message she believes in deeply. There is always hope.
Today, Tara is the Student Support Officer at Crestwood High School, a fulltime youth worker role at the heart of the school’ s wellbeing team. When I asked her what it comprised, she explained it in detail.
“ My role is all about supporting the welfare team and taking a whole school approach to wellbeing. That means everything from one-on-one student support to small group programs and wellbeing initiatives across the school.”
While she’ s quick to clarify that her job isn’ t therapeutic counselling, Tara’ s work is rooted in compassion, connection, and prevention. Her work is more hands on based around workshops helping the students develop the tools and life skills to live healthy, happy lives and to thrive even when things get hard.
“ It’ s about helping young people see their own strengths. There’ s so much pressure on kids today and we can get caught up in what’ s not working, but I like to celebrate what they’ re good at and help them see how resilient they really are.”
That focus on strengths and hope is something Tara carries through everything she does.
“ I’ ve always been passionate about helping our young people build a foundation of knowledge, confidence and self-esteem so they can see the strength in themselves and what they are capable of.”
“ So many young people think it’ s not going to get better if they aren’ t gifted academically or struggle to make friends, they don’ t know that there is hope on the other side. I want them to understand that when they come up against difficult times, there are choices and numerous paths, not just one way forward, to know those storms move, they don’ t stay with you.”
A huge part of Tara’ s work extends beyond the school grounds and into the wider Hills community through her involvement in Love Bites, a nationally recognised program that educates young people about how to have respectful relationships both romantic and platonic.
The initiative, co-facilitated by Tara and Hills Police Youth Officer Ethan West, was rolled out in response to growing concerns about unhealthy relationships among
6 ISSUE 125 // NOVEMBER 2025 theindependentmagazine. com. au THE HILLS INDEPENDENT