Yarrawonga College P-12 VCE students have taken on homelessness as a community project after extensively researching the topic.
The VCE Vocational major personal development centres on planning, implementing and evaluating a community project focusing on a community issue.
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Yarrawonga College P-12 VCE students have taken on homelessness as a community project after extensively researching the topic locally and with a broader lens.
After presentations from emergency services, emergency housing, St Vinnies and The Yarrawonga FoodShare, students looked at potential solutions to housing pressures.
Building on the success of the last year, they allocated roles to each member of the group.
Teacher, Jim Gillies said their first focus was on supporting local homeless friends and the fundraiser ‘#everyone needs a hand’ was created.
“Our college community were invited to purchase high-quality hands for either $2 or $5 with their hands being displayed on the Senior Study Centre under the banner #everyone needs a hand,” Mr Gillies said.
“This was an extremely successful fundraiser, well supported by our College Community. “One of the KPI’s for our company was to sell more than last year’s total of 224 hands … this target was smashed with 403 hands sold this year.”
The hands are displayed at the Senior Study Centre under the banner #everyone needs a hand.
One group of students were tasked with creating care bags for the homeless.
With a limited budget they were able to acquire a range of essential and comfort items. Uncle Toby’s, Terry White Chemist, Yarrawonga News and Gifts, Coles, Blooms Chemist, the Chemist Warehouse Cobram and Pirates Treasure were extremely generous, and the students were very grateful of their support.
The 40 care bags were distributed in Melbourne with a not-for-profit organisation called the Big Umbrella, which has been providing meals for those on the street in the Melbourne CBD for 18 years.
On October 7, students are collaborating with the Big Umbrella, preparing, serving meals and cleaning up at the Brunswick headquarters.
“It is an important part of the process for our friends on the street,” Mr Gillies sai.
“We are expecting to prepare and serve over 400 meals and then head back to headquarters to clean up.
“After serving the meals we will distribute our care bags to the most at-risk friends.
“Inside the care bags there is a simple message saying, ‘we hope this care bag brightens up your day’.”
Yarrawonga College P-12 is one of only four schools which have the privilege of participating in this experience with the rest of the year booked out by corporate groups. The school was given the opportunity after the way students rolled up their sleeves and worked flat out over the past two years.
“The corporate fee for participating in this program is $1500 and we are so fortunate to have Kennedys Real Estate as our corporate partner who have donated $1000 towards the fee,” Mr Gillies said.
“This has been a fantastic learning initiative, which has clearly demonstrated the outcomes of the unit of work.
“We were able to see an enormous personal growth in our students.”
VCE students took on the topic of homelessness as part of their studies.
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