Service Learning report
May was a busy month for Service at Shelford. With much research taking place into student interest and program availability, we have seen the development of a variety of service opportunities, with more to come in Semester 2.
Community Service team
The Community Service team undertook their first major event for the year on what was to become our final day before remote learning commenced. With the weather threatening to dampen plans, the team worked together to reassess the location, opting to hold the Go Grey in May activities around the Junior School spaces. All activities were designed to focus on brain health and developing awareness of paediatric brain cancer. Our dance party was a great success, thanks to movers and groovers from Prep to Year 12 and even a surprise ABBA flash mob! Our chalk drawing competition featured bright brains and healthy food and the games area was filled with fun and laughter. Karen Anscombe from RCD Foundation worked with the team, selling RCD Foundation merchandise and launching the Connor’s Run sign up station. For those who would like to take part in Connor’s Run it is a fantastic opportunity to get active and help fight the battle against paediatric brain cancer.
Youth in Philanthropy Team
Earlier that week, our Youth in Philanthropy team had the opportunity to visit three organisations doing vastly different, yet equally important work in their area of impact. Their first stop took them to HoMie, a Fitzroy based not-for-profit organisation that designs and sells fashionable clothing with a difference. HoMie started out as an idea between a group of friends, eager to break down the stigma attached with homelessness. Over time, their clothing has diversified, in 2020 they launched REBORN – premium upcycled garments reproduced in Melbourne. Their ‘Pathways Project’ is now offering its largest number of interns ever, placing and training young people in paid retail positions at the HoMie street store and retail partners across Melbourne.
The team then travelled to Abbotsford to visit FareShare. From their humble origins baking a few hundred pies each week, FareShare now operates Australia’s largest charity kitchens in Melbourne and Brisbane where chefs and volunteers work hand-in-hand to cook the best possible meal for every person. Their meals are given away free to front line charities such as soup vans, homeless shelters, women’s refuges and community food banks. The team had the opportunity to meet with CEO, Marcus Godinho where he shared his passion for volunteering, the organisation and the impact that it has on those in need, especially during COVID-19 lockdown periods. FareShare’s cooked meals do more than fill empty bellies. They feed the soul as well as the body by showing that somebody cares.
The final site visit took place at the stunning Abbotsford Convent. Renowned for its rich history, its striking built and natural landscapes, and the remarkable community-led campaign to preserve it from commercial development, the site was enshrined on Australia’s National Heritage List in 2017. Today, this nationally and internationally unique precinct is managed by the Abbotsford Convent Foundation, a not-for-profit, social enterprise. The Convent is home to a vibrant creative community, wellbeing practitioners, galleries, cafes, a radio station, a school, and an abundance of green open space. Like each of the programs, Abbotsford Convent have applied for a financial grant. Their grant would fund underground drainage and an updated sprinkler system that will save water and ease the burden on water usage, land degradation, staffing and volunteer work load.
The Youth in Philanthropy team must now decide how to allocate $10,000 on behalf of the Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation between the programs of these three wonderful organisations.
We continue to pivot and identify relevant and appropriate Service Learning opportunities for our community to contribute to. If you have any links to meaningful and active volunteer opportunities or if you have been involved in something that you would like to share with the Shelford community, please get in touch.
Simone Lewis
Service Learning Coordinator