Sacred Heart College VCAL student Lilly Beebe and Warrina Aged Care residents Nola and Nancy paint bird houses they have created together as part of a partnership between Yarrawonga Health and Sacred Heart College.
Yarrawonga Health and Sacred Heart College have commenced a partnership to bring young people in the community together with residents in Warrina Aged Care.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Year 11 and 12 VCAL students have been spending Tuesday afternoons with around 15 residents, creating relationships and getting to know each other whilst also taking part in bird house building sessions led by the students.
The residents have really got their hammers moving with other sessions also seeing students putting music playlists together, interviewing residents and writing profiles as well as playing giant games together.
Yarrawonga Health Co-Ordinator of Volunteers Jo Spence approached Scared Heart College about the partnership as she had experience in creating opportunities for young people to spend time with older people and witnessed the exceptional outcomes from these interactions.
“I approached Sacred Heart College to see if they might be interested in allowing their students to interact with the residents at Warrina in a way that had not happened before at Yarrawonga Health,” Ms Spence said.
“The program needs to be a partnership so that each organisation can understand the benefits and allow the resources to be allocated to the program to ensure that it is a success. Both Yarrawonga Health and Sacred Heart College have been committed to the program.
“We have seen students grow in confidence when speaking to people that they don’t know and we have seen our residents gradually become more interested in activities outside of their rooms.
“One of the greatest outcomes is the learnings that the students get from our residents as they share their stories and our residents chat enthusiastically with the students about what they do on weekends.”
Sacred Heart College VCAL Coordinator Richard Geary said the project has been beneficial to both generations in a number of aspects and the school hopes to continue the project for years to come.
Sacred Heart College VCAL students Cameron Ford, Noah Clarke, Charlie Adkins and Lachlan O’Connor join Warrina resident Joe to build the bird houses while having a chat to learn about each other’s lives and lifestyles.
“This opportunity to have intergenerational engagement has seen some of the residents start to become more socially connected and the students to have a greater understanding of the lives of our older residents within the community,” Mr Geary said.
“This project fits in with each section of the VCAL curriculum including the literacy and numeracy, industry specific skills, work related skills and personal development skills.
“It has been beneficial to both the students and the residents through the differing areas of the project where the students have entered the residents space and spoken to them about their lives, learning how things were done differently years ago to working together in physical activities including games and workshops.
“At the end of the term the students will present the residents with a biography of sorts from what they learnt about the residents in their time together.”
Student Elaina Martin said the project as a whole has been really good and everyone is enjoying their Tuesday afternoons together.
“We have been working on the theory since term two but have been able to come out and see the residents in term three,” Elaina said.
“The residents are beginning to get up and get involved more now in the physical activities which is great to see.
“It’s also being good getting to know the residents when we go to their rooms to have a chat to put together a little biography.”
Yarrawonga Health Lifestyle Therapist Candi Hammond said the reception to the project from the residents has been great and to see the residents come out of their rooms to take part has been rewarding.
“The reaction has been very good and the project as a whole has been very well received from the residents. We have had a good turnout,” Candi said.
“It’s been wonderful to see the residents and the students work together on the bird house building from building the house to painting it as well as interacting through the active games. The whole concept has been lovely.”
Warrina resident John Dunstan added, “It has been quite interesting. The bird house building in particular is an interest for me and these kids are keen to do something which has been good to see.”
Excitement was building with the final session held yesterday, August 30 being an afternoon tea organised and prepared by the students at Sacred Heart College and an outing for the residents to visit the school.
Yarrawonga Health and Sacred Heart College look forward to this partnership continuing in 2023.
27°C