Former Newcastle Knight Ashley Gordon receives University of Newcastle Indigenous Alumni Award for work improving lives of Aboriginal people

Mr Gordon, who has received the Indigenous Alumni Award, was 10 when his late parents Diane and Ron moved their family from Brewarrina to Newcastle in search of better opportunities.

"This [award] kind of typifies that I took those opportunities," he said.

"I'm humbled because this is what Mum and Dad wanted for me. I think I did what they wanted me to achieve so I'm feeling good about how it ended, with my Mum and Dad having this vision so long ago."

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Mr Gordon started playing for the Newcastle Knights in 1988, when at least some players still had other jobs. He studied to be a physical education teacher at UON and stayed with teaching when he had to choose between the two.

He then moved to Life Without Barriers and Leap Frog Ability, running a counselling service for disadvantaged people, including those with disabilities, learning difficulties and mental illnesses.

He said he noticed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people weren't seeking counselling and started research at Southern Cross and Central Queensland universities around the lack of help-seeking behaviour; what factors make a community struggle or strong; gambling prevalence rates and the impact on Aboriginal communities; cultural awareness and engagement; and effective service delivery.

"Amongst Aboriginal people it's about 'Does the service have the ability to understand me culturally? Do I feel like I'm going to experience something positive at this service? Are they going to know how to support me?' so there is an element of trust," he said.

"But from the other side there's the empathy from the organisation, how genuine is the ability to build a relationship and work with Aboriginal people, so it goes two ways.

"You want Aboriginal people to feel comfortable and supported but you've got organisations that still lack the ability to connect. The other thing is shame, there's lots of self esteem and confidence around admitting 'I have a problem' and wanting to do something about it.

"If you're talking about people who have experienced a cycle of loss, grief and trauma, a cycle of unemployment and financial hardship, then why would it stand out [to say] 'I need to call someone for help'? [They think] this is normalised, 'This is my life'.

"It's sad, some people feel there's no answer, no light at the end of the tunnel ."

Mr Gordon established NSW Aboriginal Safe Gambling Services, which provides a free phone service, education, awareness and community engagement. It also provides cultural awareness training to non-Aboriginal gambling and financial counselling services to help them better understand and engage members of the Aboriginal community.

"It was an unmet need in the community," he said. "Our health system is missing something, we don't screen for [gambling], we don't refer, so we're been knocking on doors at GPs and Aboriginal health services, medical centres, domestic violence and mental health workers - all these services were not funded to address gambling, yet they could be working with people who were experiencing gambling problems.

"I thought there's a definite hole here, a definite gap, we were relying on gambling counselling and financial counselling services and to tackle this problem it can't be left up to those two industries. I could see the prevalence rates in Aboriginal communities and the impact it was having and thinking 'Why aren't we doing anything?'"

He used to travel to more than 40 Aboriginal communities a year, providing education and training to Aboriginal services where gambling could be playing a role in clients' lives.

"If you don't talk with Aboriginal communities you don't get them to acknowledge there's an issue and if they don't acknowledge it, then why would anything happen?" he said.

"So the quicker we can acknowledge it, the quicker our communities can take ownership and if we give our people ownership of an issue, you've got a vibrant energetic group of people and community that are going to work with you to get things done."

Mr Gordon works with OPRA Psychology Group and has coached more than 350 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander executives in government agencies through leadership development programs.

He is on the National Suicide Prevention Trial Evaluation Indigenous Committee, is a community director at the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation, a Yarnteen board member and the co-director of Gordon Driver Licensing Program, which supports Indigenous and disadvantaged people to get their learner and provisional licenses.

"There's work to be done, there's things we need to achieve that's not there yet, there's still a journey to go to improve the lives of Aboriginal people," he said.

"I've just got to give back. I've had a wonderful career with teaching and then with football and so I'm blessed that I've had a good life. So it's not about just sitting back... I'm motivated to keep creating change. It's about not forgetting that part of who you are is about helping the people who are still struggling."

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