Impact is the best word to describe the work of the students who undertook the Youth Take Over project over the past 10 weeks.
The project was a collaboration between St Augustine’s College VCE students and Vivid Kyabram.
The project’s conclusion was marked with a closing ceremony at St Augustine’s College on Friday, June 21, where about 60 community leaders, Vivid clients and staff, teachers and students gathered to celebrate the successful collaboration.
The project, spearheaded by Campaspe Cohuna Local Learning and Employment Network project officer Debbie Rogerson and supported by VCE teachers Bianca Moore and Peter Fawcett, involved 22 students completing work experience at Vivid Kyabram and promoting the organisation to the local community.
The program resulted in a new relationship between Vivid Kyabram and St Augustine’s and the creation of a sustainable project that could be repeated with future students for many years to come.
At the closing ceremony, Mrs Rogerson detailed the various activities the students undertook to promote Vivid to the community, such as creating promotional materials, collaborating with EMFM Radio, visiting CCLLEN Echuca and regularly visiting the Vivid Kyabram site to meet with clients.
“Thanks so much to the students — well done. You’ve been a wonderful young group that have really provided inclusion to the project,” Mrs Rogerson said.
“I’ve so enjoyed watching your interactions between the clients and watching you grow over the 10 weeks.
“This pilot program is very sustainable and can be reproduced time and time again.”
Ms Moore spoke passionately about her students’ involvement in the project and thanked them for engaging with the program.
“I personally want to take a moment to thank my students and thank you guys for putting your best selves forward and embracing this project with everything you had,” she said.
“Seeing you guys engaged is the reason I became a teacher, so thank you.”
The ceremony’s highlight was listening to data from a survey about Vivid and the community’s knowledge of the organisation.
The survey, conducted by the students and distributed to the community, garnered 95 responses.
Of those 95 responses, predominantly completed by people aged between 25 and 40, 30 per cent had no knowledge of Vivid Kyabram or its activities, and 78 per cent did not know that donations to Vivid were possible.
Ms Moore said the survey also exposed that people in Kyabram were not interested in volunteering.
“We weren’t too surprised that volunteering was not high on people’s radar … it did fill us with hope that people were willing to be involved in different Vivid-run organisations, but that it was just the commitment that they were struggling with,” Ms Moore said.
Vivid chief executive Scott Alexander said students’ impact on the community was “invaluable” to Vivid Kyabram.
“This project was targeted to that visibility problem that Vivid faces … to do that, it introduced the perspectives of outsiders, namely the students’ fresh perspective hand in hand with the vitality of youth — an irresistible combination — and a compelling name for the project,” Mr Alexander said.
“So perfectly does the project articulate the key themes that underpin Vivid’s work.
“All of these interactions were collateral benefits of the project, which I didn’t necessarily expect, but, in terms of raising awareness in the community — priceless.
“I’ve had a sneak preview into the findings of this survey, and frankly, I’ve been impressed. They provide some real insight into the level of awareness of the community … and fascinating feedback.
“I couldn’t be more happy with the project and what it delivered … thank you.”
And with that, the Youth Take Over project came to a close, with the students leaving behind a lasting legacy on the community and bringing Vivid Kyabram out of the shadows of Albion St and steering it towards a more sustainable future.