School new letter - we made the papers

WE Gen @ In-SYNC 2010 Web: www.spiritus.org.au

In-SYNC Youth Service was privileged to be asked to be apart of the ‘We Gen’ project with Cannon Hill Anglican College. Our part in the project was to have the students(who had given up their break during the school holidays to participate) at our service or two days.

Below is the two day program with the ‘We Gen’ young people:
Day 1- Morning
1. Meet Staff/ Informed about service and what we do.
2. Meet staff from foster care service
3. Learn how to use spray on tattoo machine

Afternoon Videos

1. What’s the story- the truth about Youth (by the Youth Advocacy

Centre

2. Another Way- a look at 3 prisoners over 3 years who do the

Alternative to Violence workshops.

Debrief the videos. Assign homework from discuss- look up websites headspace and beyond blue- to provide information to the group tomorrow

Day 2
Morning Discuss issues facing young people today- and what options are available for them within and outside the school. Confidentiality/ privacy what does this mean for the young person and the services that they seek assistance from.
Afternoon Look at what the young people found out about websites Future focus- what are the ways that they would like to work together in future? How/ who/ when can we develop these ideas to becoming realties (see below)?
Youth Day Out – on Saturday 10th April- come and attend and assist In-SYNC staff with spray on tattoo’s during the event.

T\he ‘We Gen’ two day program is just the beginning of the relationship between the school and In-SYNC. Research shows that young people who become involved in civic and/ or political issues are more likely to be involved in these issues later in their life (Hart, Donnelly, Youniss, and Atkins, 2007 pg199).
In the two days that the students were at the service, the students came up with the following ideas for future activities. First we explored whatmotivated them to be involved:
Chill - share experiences - gain trust - raising funds - giving of self – fun –
Activities - helping out - talk and meet young people: pen pals, become friends

We then looked at ways of how this can occur: The students came up with the following ideas:
• Art project to sell at upcoming Art auction/ wetlands festival through schools
arts committee/
• Baby sitting for young mums through the schools girls’ advisory committee
• round robin lunches open to all community members held at church halls (Bulimba Anglican and Uniting Churches).

The students and In-SYNC are currently working together to get an art workshop run prior to their Art Auction on the 23rd May.

They also named some other ways that could be developed in the future:
• Voluntary work within Spiritus services which included administration and cleaning
• Development of pen pals between students and service users/
• Planning joint activities which could contain a fund raising component by the
school for services.

Spiritus services are generally inundated with demands upon their limited resources to provide support to vulnerable people within the community. And people who access our services usually have limited support networks (formal and informal) on which they can rely on to address issues such as poverty, homelessness, educational, health and mental health.

The on going relationship is seeking to develop the relationship between us and school students who are looking for ways to engage and support those vulnerable within their community.

Karen O’Donohue, Manager Spiritus In-SYNC A 2010

Web: www.spiritus.org.au

Email Bump in the road

Hey Karen,

I talked to Kerrie  (our head of arts department) and she is just concerned about the money involved and what is going to happen with it all.
She said that she will get in contact with you to see what she can organise, but i was thinking that if she hasn't already, you could maybe contact our school and talk to her!
Sorry it has taken me awhile, school has just been fairly busy this week!
Hope I haven't inconvenienced you too much with taking so long! and that everything is going well for you!
Bron

My reply to Brons email

Hi Bron,
Wow that great, and great contingency plan.
I will email Christian now and see what he thinks.
I will get back to you as soon as I hear from him.

If he is able to do this Sunday, what the best way to get you, as being a short week we have a short time to get the participants- and I don't want to stress you with too much extra work,.

So if I can do anything at the school to help you this week let me know.
My phone contacts are below, or you can text me and I will call you.
Karen

Reply from Bron

Hey Karen,
I talked to the principle on Thursday and she is supportive of the idea, although is concerned about the time line we have to work with.

I still have to talk to the head of our Arts department, and I am doing that on Tuesday, she has been away for the last 3 days of last week, but is expecting me then.

If we do get the full go ahead, would you be ready to do it next sunday? (as in 7 days time), cause if we dont do i then, then we won't have 2 full days before the 23rd

The other idea was do we maybe have Christian there on the day showing what he does and have people sign up for it then, and then just have another day when we get together and have a stall to sell these?

Let me know what would be best!!

Cheers Bron

Discussion Board WEEK 6

Sunday, 18 April 2010 11:50:54 AM EST
Wow I feel that I have done so much and yet so little. I have been powering ahead with my project but I have taken to time to write about it on my blog or on the discussion board.

So here goes my update:
I ran a 2 day project with young people from one of the Anglican schools with one of the chaplains. The two days was really good way to connect and discuss many topics with the young people. We watched a couple of videos- one that was made by the Youth Advocacy Centre by young people, part of it was filmed in the juvenile detention centre. The second was by Alternative Violence Project Qld- who run workshops, this one was with prisoners.

The videos provided a lot of conversation around where things can go wrong for people leading to bad choices. This then lead to a discussion of who was available for them to discuss things with. The people were easily identifiable (school counsellor, teachers, chaplains and school nurse), the issues that arose where around lack of knowledge and understanding of the roles and responsibilities of these roles- mainly confidentiality.

The group identified a few ways to address this so that students can be more aware of the roles and responsibilities of these people.
Lastly we identified future projects where and how we can work together- the first was on Saturday at our Youth Week event.
Now I have a heap of work to do to get all the rest of them happening – the next is in May so I better get cracking.
Karen

Art show- to raise funds

Hi Christian,


I am wondering if you have an time over the next few weeks to run a couple of work shops with some young people from an Anglican College? We want to get some pieces together for their art auction on the 23rd May. I know it is short notice but a great opportunity I think for us both if we can pull it off. Send the costing to me.

Bron if you can let me know where you are up to with the boys group and if they are interested that would be great.

Finally started the process

Hi All,
I have done heaps but have not stopped and taken the time to actually write about it. so here goes as a catch up on what I am doing On Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th April - I had three students and one school based Chaplain. It was a busy two days:
 We started with the fun stuff and they learnt how to use the spray on tattoo machine- and got to tattoo each other.


 We then discussed what our service did, then watched a couple of videos - one by young people and one by a community group that our service is involved with Alternatives to Violence Project (who run workshops), the workshop we watched was with a group of prisoners who participated in the workshops.

 We discussed and looked at choices that people make and what supports that they have.

 We further discussed what supports young people in their school have- and the issues that may stop them from seeking out these supports.

 One of the main ones was the uncertainty re what the roles and who and when these people need to discuss things that they discuss with.

And that was day one.

Re starting

Hi all,

I have started a new blog. On my way home from class today I was deep in thought of the inclusive progress that is vitally important in community development. Given this I decided to focus on an opportunity that presented itself to me last week.

I have been approached by a school to further develop a program that I developed with them last year. Both the school and my organisation are keen to develop stronger links between them and the services that my organisation delivers.

It is exciting opportunity.
I need to start with a discussion with the school to add this technology part of the program into the small program we have developed. As my thinking has become bigger and longer term from the small prgram I had originally planned with them. Fingers crossed as I am following up tomorrow.
Karen