VCAL Immersion

Last Monday, 25 of our VCAL students left Echuca and travelled to Melbourne. This was the beginning of their 4 day social justice and community service immersion, with Melbourne being their first stop along the way. During their time in Melbourne, VCAL attended a seminar about homelessness in Australia which they claimed was an ‘eye opening’ experience. Our students then arrived in Mornington Peninsula and braved Balnarring’s torrential rain and freezing temperatures while they restored some run-down facilities at the Presentation Family Centre. 

On day one, the VCAL students were fortunate enough to visit the Big Issue building and take part in an educational workshop. The Big Issue is a non-profit organisation which specialises in providing job opportunities for people experiencing homelessness, marginalisation and disadvantage. They create these work opportunities by publishing a Big Issue Magazine which they sell to disadvantaged people for a very low price. These people then locate themselves on Melbourne's streets or busy areas and resell the magazines for a higher price to people passing by. Each magazine is purchased for $4.50 and resold for $9. The people that resell the magazines are known as vendors. When vendors sell magazines, they not only make money, but they also learn social and communication skills too. A new magazine is made fortnightly by the Big Issue’s editorial team. The people eligible to become a vendor must be experiencing some sort of homelessness, long-term unemployment, intellectual and physical disability, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency or family breakdown. You also must be at least 18 years old to apply to become a vendor. Personally, I found this workshop very interesting as homelessness and disadvantage is a topic I never knew much about. Listening to Phil, the guest speaker who is a vendor himself, tell his story about his homelessness was eye opening for me. The positive impact that The Big Issue organisation has had on him is huge. Thanks to them he has really turned his life around. 

For the rest of the trip, we stayed at the Presentation Family Center in Balnarring. 

The Presentation Family Centre is run by the presentation sisters. The centre provides a safe place for families in need to stay. The centre houses families that need support for reasons including financial stress, caring responsibilities, grief and loss, disability, illness, or other circumstances. Presentation Family Centre has six houses available to visitors, a communal kitchen, a large playground, and acres of land to share. Balnarring beach, local shops and parks are all within walking distance of the centre.

Our main task was tackling the centre's overgrown garden beds. We did this by restoring the existing Indigenous plants, weeding, pulling out trees, trimming back hedges, mulching the garden beds and pressure washing the pathways surrounding. After two days of gardening, the place looked amazing. Residents walking by complimented how neat everything looked and praised us for our hard work. We also attempted to render one of the walls on the side of a cabin. Rendering was something I've never done before but once I gave it a go, I fell in love with the work. Watching the render be smoothed out on the wall was greatly satisfying. I think this was one of my favourite parts of the entire camp.

Ella McPherson

VCAL Student