Social Justice News 

 Social Justice Leadership Workshop

We weren’t going to let lockdown keep us from getting together to participate in a Social Justice Leadership Workshop. On Wednesday students from Sion, Siena, Sacred Heart, Marcellin and Mazenod colleges met online to learn, reflect, analyse and respond to issues affecting our communities.

Megan Bourke from ACRATH (the Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans, the peak body for 155 religious orders in Australia, representing over 5,700 religious sisters, brothers and priests) led the program and staff from Our Lady of Sion College, Box Hill facilitated the online event.

Megan was a dynamic presenter who produced a thought provoking range of resources for consideration and analysis in both the large group and small breakout rooms. Guest speakers Julia and Augustin were phenomenal as excellent examples of true leadership. Both currently studying at  University, they showed the ways that young people can use their voice to advocate for a more just society. Augustin, who came to Australia 12 years ago as a refugee from the Congo and recently ran for election in Hobson’s Bay, suggested that leaders need to develop skills in seeing what is happening around us; find a motivating force to power our action; develop our emotionally intelligence to empathise with others and build our ability to both listen for understanding and then communicate effectively.

Megan knew that we would feel challenged by the content of the day and acknowledged that it is often difficult to hear about and respond to the many injustices occurring around us. However, by working with others in solidarity and alongside others in the spirit of subsidiarity we seek to ensure all are treated with dignity.

Our Year 10 Mazenod students: Cameron Boey, Luca D'Angelo, Quion Dias, James Kwan, Nikhil Perera and Walter Wright welcomed the opportunity to listen, learn, share and socialise in the breakout rooms too.

'I found that this was a challenging but good event to attend. I was really inspired by the guest speakers, they were probably the highlight of the day, that, and the small group breakout rooms. The overall material and messages were really good and informative. If there are any other events similar to this, sign me up - I'm all for it!  James

‘Overall, this workshop was really valuable. It's a shame that we weren't able to do it face to face, but the amount of information I was able to get out of it was amazing. I learnt lots of new things and saw things from different peoples’ perspectives, which helped me to deepen my understanding as well.’   Nikhil

Source: Screen shots of our Workshop