When you're homeless, you just feel like the world's telling you you're nothing.
And it's almost like you go unseen by everyone around you.
So to me that's the biggest struggle of being homeless
It's not the external stuff.
Y'know, how am I gonna eat?
It created this deep self hatred and this very low self esteem.
There was one time when, we were living in our car and
my mum turned and said to me from the front seat
"Don't let where we are now determine where you end up.
Just because we have nothing doesn't mean you can't have an impact on the world around you."
I'm Zack Bryers, I'm 29 years old
I'm a youth outreach worker for YouthCare Canberra.
So when Zack and I met Zack was 18 and I was 19.
I think the thing that drew me to Zack was really his smile.
He told me that he was a sponsored surfer,
little did I know that he actually meant
that he was sponsored by Centrelink at time.
I think over the past 10 years slowly I've learnt more and more about his past and where he's come from.
Yeah we had a lot of struggles growing up, me and my mum
you know homelessness, domestic violence,
hanging around people who were committing crimes,
I left home at 15 and became homeless there for,
for about a year, couchsurfing, living on the streets, doing what I could to survive.
Everything's going bad around you so you'll make bad decisions
because it's almost like a confirmation bias.
Stealing, robbing, whatever I could
to get 4 or 5 dollars to the IGA to get some chips and a cola for that day.
You know I met Megan and she kinda was that motivating force, someone who believed in me.
So when Zack and I first met he was unemployed.
He said that he always wanted to join the army.
I thought it was going to be the best move for him, coming out of homelessness.
People were always telling me I was going to be nothing.
To join the army was my way to kind of
hopefully prove to them that I was at least something.
So I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011.
There was a few killed in action before he was deployed and that was quite unnerving.
So I drove Bushmasters and we'd look for IEDs, so try and clear bombs that were planted on the road
and try and keep the whole squad safe.
Basically got attacked in Karib,
we were getting rocketed on the Hellman border.
I don't think he realised the trauma that he would go through whilst he was over there.
I started getting cluster headaches which are the most excruciating pain I've ever felt.
And I would get that like four times a day for about four hours.
And they said to me, we're going to have to send you home.
Everyone was there with bullet holes and missing legs
and I'm there with a headache.
And that was the moment where I thought I was a coward.
I'd worked so hard to
develop the self esteem within myself
and then it just came crashing back down.
They've got this mateship where
no one gets left behind.
And he really felt like he was letting the team down.
I was diagnosed with PTSD and was eventually medically discharged from the army.
When it comes down to PTSD it's an invisible injury
He was quite beaten up through the discharge process
by his superior officers, which didn't help his mental state at all.
Leaving the army I was struggling with just a lot of depression, a lot of anger
a big thing was the anger.
You know, so I started boxing.
He started going to the gym, getting endorphins pumping
and then I think that's really when it sparked him wanting to
go for the Australian team in gridiron
in under 18 months.
For years previous to that my purpose had been Afghanistan.
So it was about
changing the purpose.
Honestly, I thought his goal was far, far-fetched.
I thought you've never even picked up a ball, how are you going to go and play for Australia?
But he grabbed it by the horns and I've never seen him so determined in his life.
And I was fortunate to be selected in 17 months for the Australian team
and went over in 2015 for
The Gridiron World Cup.
You know, walking out on that field, considering where I come from was surreal to me.
I thought back and thought about everything I'd been through and
that's when I realised everything in my life had been a blessing.
Hey boy's, what's up?
I had always felt that I had some lessons I want to pass on
and I thought, "what if I could help kids that grow up just like me?"
So we do various roles.
It's mostly engaging homeless
or at risk of homeless youth.
What me and Zack give to these kids is
being sort of that positive role model.
Let kids know that
they have greatness within them
and that they can do whatever they want if they put in the work.
It’s very rewarding and
you get to see those who believe that they're worthless
realise that they're worthwhile.
My family broke down a couple of years ago
so between the ages of about 12 and 16,
I pretty much was homeless.
We usually use rock climbing as a way for people to find their limits
and that sets what they believe is possible for themselves.
"See you're good."
"Oh this is the worst part."
"I got you, I got you."
I’m terrified of heights and I can get up these and once I’m done, I'm like,
hold up,
I've just overcome this barrier so I can overcome the one that's currently in my life.
Since I met Zack,
I'm not couchsurfing anymore, I'm working three jobs,
I've got my own stable accommodation.
And you get to see someone start to believe what you see in them.
"That was awesome man."
This is a very, superhero kind of thing.
The journey I've been on has been one where,
I think I'm driven by that dialogue with myself where
every morning I wake up and I believe I'm nothing,
so I spend the rest of the day trying to prove myself wrong.
I think he really shows that anything is possible.
That you aren't defined by your past,
that you can make your own future.