Michelle Pascoe: Welcome everyone to today’s podcast. I’m really going to enjoy this conversation with Damien Schofield.
Damien grew up on cattle farms in rural New South Wales, then moved through experiences that took him to the gates of Murrayfield Stadium, from boxing rings to Australia’s security front lines. His journey is one of resilience, service and deep family values.
Damien is a former professional fighter, elite resilience coach and founder of Younger Heroes, a not-for-profit reconnecting veterans with their children. His work is shaped by action, purpose and lived experience, and that is one of the reasons I wanted him on the podcast today. I wanted to hear more about Younger Heroes, and about how his own childhood and life experiences now inform the programs he delivers.
With experience spanning physical rehabilitation, private security and military support operations, Damien’s story is a powerful testament to the strength of family and the impact of service well beyond the uniform.
Thank you so much for joining me today, Damien.
Damien Schofield: Thanks, Michelle. That’s a good intro. I’m a bit nervous.
Michelle Pascoe: We’re going to hear all about Younger Heroes, and I’m sure many of my listeners would also love to hear a little more about Murrayfield. Let’s start at the beginning. What inspired you to create Younger Heroes, and how did your own experiences growing up in a military family shape the program’s mission and direction?
Damien Schofield: Younger Heroes was born from lived experience. I grew up in rural New South Wales with a father who served in combat in Vietnam under 7 RAR. Like many veterans of that era, he carried things home that were never really dealt with.
As a child, you don’t always have the language for what is happening, but you feel the impact. What I saw first hand was that service affects not only the person who served, but the whole family, and especially the children.
That stayed with me for life. I also had family members and mates serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through my own work in high-pressure environments, I realised there was rightly a focus on veterans, but very little focus on the children quietly absorbing everything at home.
Younger Heroes was created to change that narrative, strengthen the parent-child bond and interrupt generational trauma before it becomes the next story.
Michelle Pascoe: It really resonates. As I shared with you in our notes, my family spans multiple generations of military service, and I was involved in the military for a number of years as well.
Even though I did not have children at that time, I saw families moving constantly from state to state and sometimes overseas. One of the biggest impacts on children was having to start again and again with schools, friendships and routines. For many families, one or both parents were leaving for deployment or reconnaissance, and the children had to navigate all of that change.
Damien Schofield: It is huge. There are so many families where both parents have served, or are still serving. We have families in the program who have been in that life for more than 30 years. Some children have moved schools 11 or 15 times.
When you also understand generational trauma, you see how deeply this can run through family lines. I have strong military connections in my own family history through World War I and beyond, and you can see those patterns continue through generations. That is one of the reasons Younger Heroes exists: to create connection, give families someone to talk to and help break those cycles.
Michelle Pascoe: One positive shift is that today we do have the internet, so children can continue conversations and friendships even after a move. In earlier years, once you moved on, those connections were often gone. That technology can help, but families still face experiences many people do not fully understand.
How do you build trust and connection with veteran families who often carry invisible wounds from service? What have you found most effective in helping them reconnect with their children? And can you explain more about what the program actually does?
Damien Schofield: Communication is key. We work on four core pillars: strengthening family bonds, communication, team building and personal resilience.
The environment is also critical. Trust is built through an experience that feels safe, intentional and grounded. We take families out into nature, away from clinical settings and away from the noise and pace of everyday life. We create beautiful, intentional spaces with fires, waterfalls, hills and open land. That matters.
Nature lowers stress and helps people relax. It allows parents and children to disconnect from the outside world and reconnect with each other.
On the programs, there is no judgement and no diagnosis. We create a safe container where families can be present again and learn from each other. We also have strong facilitator support, including people with lived experience, chefs and a structured framework that creates safety and consistency.
Once that foundation is in place, real conversations start to happen. Often those happen after activities, around a fire in the late afternoon or early evening, or in the early morning.
Michelle Pascoe: That structure is so important. Military life is very structured, and I saw personally how challenging that transition could be when someone came back from deployment. The family at home has created routines around school, sport, music and daily life, and then suddenly a partner or parent returns and has to fit back in.
Often by the time the family has readjusted, it is time for that person to leave again. It becomes a constant cycle of adjusting and readjusting.
Damien Schofield: Exactly. Some of the stories are immense. Afghanistan was the longest war we have been involved in, and some people have done five, six or even more deployments over many years. They may have missed birthdays, births and significant milestones.
When those families come into Younger Heroes and we strip away the technology and outside distractions, conversations open up. Everyone is on a level playing field. The parent might be able to express distress they have been carrying, and the children hear similar stories from others in the program.
It also gives the children space to share what they have been dealing with. To an adult, some of those things might seem small compared with the pressures adults carry, but for a child they are not small at all. A parent can sit around the fire and suddenly realise their child has been holding something for years.
Michelle Pascoe: It really does create space for those conversations. There is that joy when a parent returns safely, but then there is also the practical reality of fitting back into each other’s lives. Sometimes it takes words and communication to make that possible.
Damien Schofield: That is right. I can only speak from personal experience, but I used to go overseas for security work for two or three months at a time. I know how hard that was on a family. My wife had structure at home, and she said it was actually harder when I came back because it disrupted everything she had worked hard to organise. I loved being home because I missed them, but for the household it changed the rhythm immediately.
And that was only a short period compared with what many military families do over repeated six, seven or nine-month deployments.
Michelle Pascoe: You can see a real emotional shift when children are involved. Missing a birth, a first step or a milestone has a profound effect. While technology now helps with FaceTime and video calls, there is still a major physical and emotional gap.
You have worked in high-pressure environments, from boxing rings to security operations. How do those experiences inform the way you build resilience in others? And what might hospitality leaders learn from those same principles when supporting their own teams and communities?
Damien Schofield: Being in a boxing ring or a high-pressure environment teaches you very quickly that leadership is observed. The calmer and more relaxed you are as a leader, the more that steadiness flows through the team.
Whether you are in a boxing ring, working security or in a busy restaurant, people are watching your every move. When things get uncomfortable, people remember how you reacted to pressure.
If a leader panics and loses composure, that pressure spreads through the team. If a leader stays calm, communicates well and backs their people, resilience spreads through the whole team.
Hospitality is no different. Busy services, staff shortages and difficult customers expose leadership. Strong leaders do not have to dominate the room, but they do need to regulate it. They need to set the tone, hold standards and work alongside the team when it matters.
Resilience is not about being loud or tough. It is about being steady, consistent and accountable under pressure.
Michelle Pascoe: I love those words: steady, consistent and accountable under pressure.
When a leader truly has a team’s back, it changes commitment. Staff can hear a leader say they support them, but when they see that support in action, whether directed at them or another team member, it changes how they feel about that leader. It matters so much, especially in frontline work where people are dealing with the public every day.
Damien Schofield: One hundred per cent. Leaders have to be accountable too. Good leadership skills matter because the team is learning from you and absorbing everything. Experience matters. If the leadership is not there, things can become catastrophic very quickly.
Michelle Pascoe: You also talk about community not just as a concept, but as something lived and intentional. How important is community in healing, growth and leadership? And what can hospitality businesses learn from the way you foster strong bonds through Younger Heroes?
Damien Schofield: Community is critical because it creates social resilience. When things go wrong, a strong community does not fall apart. It comes together.
In a healthy community, people step up in different ways. Some lead, some support, others bring specific skills when needed, and everyone has a role. That is what keeps a group moving forward under pressure.
That requires leadership. Someone has to stay calm, ask the right questions and bring people together.
At Younger Heroes, that is exactly what happens. We bring families onto the land, remove the outside noise and distractions, and put everyone on the same level playing field. Through shared challenges, shared meals and time around the fire, people reconnect and share their stories. That is where strength is built.
The same applies in business and hospitality. A weak culture or poor leadership affects the whole organisation. Strong leadership builds resilience, and it builds stronger communities.
Michelle Pascoe: Is Younger Heroes for current serving veterans, or also for people who have left the military? Can they come into the programs as well?
Damien Schofield: It is for parent and child, and it is for both current and ex-serving families. It is also for family members.
We are increasingly being asked about circumstances where a spouse attends after losing a partner, or where a separated parent wants to reconnect with a child. The program is designed primarily as a one-on-one format, one parent and one child, because that is very powerful. But depending on circumstances, we can be flexible.
We have had parents come back multiple times with different children over the years. Some of those parents later return as facilitators. That is what it is all about: building a community that continues to evolve.
Michelle Pascoe: I am so pleased to hear there is flexibility. One challenge across many veteran-support organisations is reaching people after they leave the military. When someone is still serving, there are clearer lines of communication. Once they leave, especially if it has been because of PTSD or a medical discharge, they can feel deeply isolated, and that affects the whole family.
Damien Schofield: Yes, and we do see that. We get men and women who have just left, or are leaving, the military after medical discharge. One of my goals is to build a program that gives them purpose and equips them to go back into defence environments to talk about family connection, stress taken home and the importance of doing the work for your children.
When people are in the military, they are in a cocoon of support. They are leaving far more than a 9-to-5 job. They are leaving a work family and a whole way of life. That transition is significant.
We understand those realities because of our facilitators’ lived experience. Most of our facilitators are ex-serving. They include people with leadership backgrounds, lived operational experience, older children, broken marriages, second families and different entry points into military life.
You can also see differences in how people transition. Those who joined very young often find it harder because it is all they have known. People who entered later in life may have had another career beforehand, which can make that transition a little different. There are many factors that shape how someone adjusts to civilian life.
Michelle Pascoe: That is such an important point. Looking ahead, how can individuals or businesses in the hospitality industry, from chefs to hotel managers, support or get involved with Younger Heroes and its mission to strengthen families and serve those who have served?
Damien Schofield: Hospitality can play a very practical role. We bring chefs into our programs, and nutrition and food are a big part of the experience. Our programs are usually run remotely and nationally, with a strong base in New South Wales. We often build everything from a blank canvas, bringing in chefs, equipment and everything needed to create the environment.
The hospitality industry can support us through partnerships, in-kind support, venue access, donated food, staffing support and fundraising initiatives. Venues can also help amplify our mission and the Younger Heroes name.
We can provide facilitators to speak at venues on leadership, resilience and social resilience. We can also tailor programs for businesses, including hospitality teams, focused on leadership, resilience, strong community and performing under pressure. That creates income for Younger Heroes, gives back to the community and teaches practical tools businesses can use immediately.
At the end of the day, strengthening families strengthens communities, and everyone benefits.
Michelle Pascoe: Thank you so much, Damien. I really enjoyed our conversation and hearing how your personal story now carries through into the work you do with Younger Heroes for veterans and their families. That connection is so important for every person who comes through the programs.
If you would like to learn more about what Damien and his team do at Younger Heroes, please go to the show notes. I will include the links there for you.
Is there anything I have not asked that you would like to share with my audience?
Damien Schofield: I would simply encourage people to reach out. Visit the Younger Heroes website, or connect through Instagram, Facebook or email. Email is probably the best way to get hold of me.
If there are organisations interested in partnering or sponsoring, or if there are more clubs that would like to hear about Younger Heroes or potentially have us run a program for their business, please get in touch. We have recently partnered with an amazing club in Sydney, and we would love to keep building those relationships.
Michelle Pascoe: Perfect. I’ll make sure all of those details are shared. Thank you so much, Damien, for your wisdom and for telling us more about the Younger Heroes program.
Damien Schofield: Thank you so much, Michelle. It has been a great chat.
