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YVCS Students making a difference part 2

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You may have read our blog  “Students making a difference” posted 08/07/205 about our two VCAL Foundation classes at the Yarra Junction campus of Yarra Valley Community School raising money to support orphans and primary school children in Kariakomo Orphanage in Kenya through the Milking Cow & Goat Project run by the Rotary Club of Healesville.

The students managed the project with one goal, raise as much money as possible to make a difference. The main fundraisers that took place were a sausage sizzle and raffling off a trailer load of wood. They drew the crowds in with the smell of a BBQ and once a sausage had been sold, they tempted the public with a chance to win firewood to keep them warm during winter.

Originally it was hoped that the students would raise enough money to buy a goat or two for the community, but with the money raised they have been able to pay for 5 acres of maize seed to be planted and grown, ensuring that the Kenyan children have a regular supply of food.

The students of YVCS raised over $1000 which is a great achievement and showcases their dedication to this project. To say thank you for all their hard work they were invited to celebratory BBQ hosted by Healesville Rotary, with club members Wilma, Bruce and Don providing a lovely lunch to be enjoyed any all in attendance.

YVCS students enjoyed bacon and egg rolls and sausages and onion on the BBQ. Once the food was all gone, Wilma Best, Project Manager for the Milking Cow & Goat Project, presented the students with a framed certificate of achievement and appreciation.

“The fundraising project has been a great experience for the students, teaching them not only entrepreneurial skills, but helping them to build their social conscience in reaching out to other children in the world, not just in their own backyard.” Willa Vale –  VCAL Foundation Teacher

Well done to all involved! 

To find out more about UYCH youth education services click here or call 1300 835 235

Baking a Great Relationship

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Lemon delicious, pavlova, fruit sponge with custard, birthday cakes, cupcakes and even an impossible pie! It sounds like a menu you may find in a bakery. In reality, this is a small sample of the delicious foods that the students of Yarra Valley Community School (YVCS) have been making in conjunction with the good folk of the Warburton Lyrebird Day Club.

The Warburton Lyrebird Day Club was established in 1995 to address the concerning level of social isolation felt by many veterans and senior community members in the Warburton region.

The club meets every Wednesday at the Redwood Centre in Warburton. YVCS students from the Yarra Junction campus attend each week (and even through the school holidays) to assist with setting the tables, preparing the main meal, making the dessert, serving the luncheon guests and cleaning the kitchen after mealtime. Students assist lunch members into the dining room, serve their drinks and make sure that needs are met.

“I love going each week and supporting my older community members. They get to enjoy a big lunch and catch up with fellow community members. Each week we cook for them, talk with them and hear great stories…every week is full of laughter and fun.” – Sarah YVCS Yarra Junction campus

Lunch guests pay $12.50, receive a three-course meal and are invited to participate in social activities. Games such as Mahjong, solitaire, scrabble and other card and board games are played weekly.  The money raised each week then provides the meal for the next week.

In November 2015 The Warburton Day Club will celebrate 20 years of providing meals to the community through volunteer support and passion. The students of Yarra Valley Community School are extremely proud of their role in supporting such a great initiative and the feedback received from the seniors has been great.

Check out the The Lyrebird Club Facebook page

Our students are a dedicated bunch who embrace the community and do all they can to assist throughout the year. The projects they undertake are designed to assist them with tasks that can lead to further education and employment. If you require more information on our youth education services click here or call 1300 835 235. With two convenient locations we’ve got the valley covered when it comes to education.

Image of a Lyrebird day club member
Image of a Lyrebird day club member
Image of a student assisting at the Lyrebird day club
Image of a student assisting at the Lyrebird day club
Image of a Lyrebird day club member
Image of a Lyrebird day club member
Image of a Lyrebird day club member
Image of a Lyrebird day club member
Image of a student assisting at the Lyrebird day club
Image of a student assisting at the Lyrebird day club
Image of a student assisting at the Lyrebird day club
Image of a student assisting at the Lyrebird day club
Image of the students learning how to use a hoist
Image of the students learning how to use a hoist

Student art for all to see

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At the start of the year, the Yarra Valley Community School was offered 3 projects that they could work on for their personal development skills unit. Graffiti Art was one of the projects which ran for six months. Graffiti artist Brad Colling lead the project team with Kelly Charman (YVCS Teacher) which covered a wide range of graffiti skills that included; t-shirt screen printing, canvasses and the star attraction the Men’s Shed sign.

The project wasn’t just making works of art, the students also learnt about the effects of graffiti in the community and graffiti removal. Sessions on this topic were conducted by Mark and Julie Hanman (Yarra Ranges Council Youth Services Officer) which saw the kids get involved with graffiti removal and helped them gain an understanding of the difference between street art and vandalism.

The main project was the sign for Ben’s Shed in Yarra Junction, this being the star attraction the students got out amongst the community to gather feedback and listen to suggestions. The first step was to have a meeting with the Ben’s Shed committee to discuss the history of Ben’s shed, and what they would like to see on the sign. This consultative approach was driven by the students who met frequently with shed members to ensure the project was on track and to their liking. They researched the history of Yarra Junction and spoke to local business to get approval for the sign as well as spending many hours planning and designing the sign. Drafts of final design were presented to Ben’s Shed on regular basis to get approval after which they came back with suggestions.  Once the sign got final approval the students started the big task of sanding, painting, stencilling and spraying the sign.

O’Shannassy Ward councillor Jim Child officially opened the sign launch and thanked the students and everyone involved for all their hard work.  Takysha Gammon (Student -YVCS VCAL Senior) did a great job presenting to the crowd about the project and the steps taken to create the artwork piece. Other speakers included, Leigh Hardy (Ben’s Shed), Julie Hanman (master of ceremonies), Brad Colling and Kate Kite (Ben’s Shed Treasurer) who presented certificates of appreciation. Many people attended this event to celebrate a project that set about connecting young people with older members of the community.  The final result complements Ben’s Shed with additional signs still to be erected over the coming months that aim to add colour and fun to the main street of Yarra Junction.

“The highlights for me was seeing it all come together. Months of planning really paid off and students benefited from the interaction with other community members”. Kelly Charman YVCS Teacher

“Linking young people with the community for me was the main highlight. The students were eager to learn and put in the hard work to get a positive result”. Brad Colling Graffiti Artist

“Graffiti vandalism (tagging) is a problem within our community. The students took a known problem and made it into an art form to be appreciated”. Julie Hanamn (Yarra Ranges Council Youth Services Officer)

A big thank you to Julie Hanman and Mark from the Shires, Brad Collings, Ben’s shed committee members and Karen Swankie (YVCS VCAL Coordinator).

Overall the project was a huge success with the community benefiting from having a new sign at no cost to them and having the opportunity to engage with young people.

For further information on Ben’s shed visit their Facebook page or to learn more about our youth education services click here.

Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project
Image of YVCS Graffiti Art Project

YVCS Students gain skills on mental health

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Yarra Valley Community School was successful in obtaining funding via Yarra Ranges Youth Services Resilience funding program. Using this grant we sourced and implemented a training program with all the Yarra Junction campus VCAL students. The training was called teen Mental Health First Aid (teen MHFA) which  was conducted in term 2 this year.

The course consisted of three full sessions of facilitated workshops which gives students the skills they need to recognise and help with mental health problems and the signs to look for in friends, and how to get the help of an adult quickly. Young people often help each other when they are feeling upset or stressed. The course gave attendees the tools needed to seek help and not take on the problems that a friend may be experiencing alone. Similar to the well-known physical First Aid the course covers the basics of mental health disorders which includes; how to recognise symptoms to help and when to call for external supports. At the completion of the three components the students were issued with a certificate which comes with international recognition.

The essence of the course is for the students to familiarise themselves with mental health language, supports and processes for referral within the broader community. The aim was to destigmatise mental health labels and increase the individual student’s mental health literacy.

To celebrate their efforts in undertaking this at times confronting training, the students were treated to a warm homemade lunch each week followed by a game of basketball to unwind at the Yarra Centre in Yarra Junction.

“The students really enjoyed the course and gained skills that will assist them well into their futures which is what our education programs strive to do. Proud to have participated and warmed all those student belly’s”. Kerry Ditcham YVCS Student Wellbeing Officer

Huge warm and wonderful thanks to Denise Warmington for running this brilliant program.

Congratulations to the students who achieved their certificates. 

To find out more about our VCAL program click here or call 03 5967 1776 Yarra Junction and 03 9736 1457 Mt Evelyn.

YVCS Students making a difference

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The Milking Cow and Goat Project – YVCS students raising money for orphanage in Kenya.

Foundation VCAL Students from the Yarra Junction Campus at YVCS are currently working with the Healesville Rotary Club to raise money for The Milking Cow and Goat Project which supports orphans and primary school children in Kariakomo Orphanage in Kenya. These children live in extreme poverty, dying of starvation and diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria. 300 orphans and poor children attend school and their daily intake of food consists of some beans and maize and ¾ glass of milk. Once a week they get one egg and a banana so as you can see they really need our support. The students have developed fundraising projects to support the purchase of cows and goats that will provide more milk for the children.

As a part of this project the students came up with some great ideas on how to raise the funds needed to make sure their milk supply doesn’t run out. The first initiative was to run a raffle, being winter a decision to make the prize a trailer full of fire wood was a winner. So off they went making a flyer and putting them up in local businesses to spread the word. They took to main street of Yarra Junction with their trailer full of wood to promote and sell tickets. Their entrepreneurial  skills didn’t stop there as they held a sausage sizzle at the same time, so customers could purchase a ticket while waiting for their banger in bread, good thinking on their part. Their hard work has paid off as they have raised over $1000 and they still have more ideas up their sleeve, so be sure to keep an eye on our website and blog for more fundraising activities to take part in.

If you’d like to support this fantastic fundraising activity come into UYCH Main Office – 2463 Warburton Hwy in Yarra Junction to purchase your raffle tickets – $2 each or 3 for $5. The raffle will be drawn Wednesday 5th of August so there is plenty of time to purchase a ticket or three.

For more information on The Milking Cow and Goat Project visit www.cowsandgoatsproject.org.au

If you would like to know more about our youth education programs click here.

VCAL Students get the green thumbs up

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Supporting Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Living within UYCH – Introducing the UYCH Growing Community.

The UYCH Mt Evelyn Campus has launched its very own community garden with the vision and aim of providing a general garden space for our students and community members to create and maintain their own gardens.  We hope the garden will encourage sustainable and environmentally friendly living within our community and provide people with the opportunity to create and utilise a garden space that they may not have an opportunity to do so in their own home. It is also a great concept to encourage and promote healthy eating and activity within our organisation and local community.

Historically the garden operated under Morrisons, however in the change-over with UYCH the Community Garden program was left unattended.  This year, our VCAL landscaping class have been working tirelessly to tidy and clean up any over-grown areas so new members could start using the garden and planting their seeds for the season.

There are 8 plots in total, 5 large and 3 small with a wood-fire pizza oven on site that can also be used by members. The use of the garden has already proven popular with departments of UYCH and past garden users from the Mt Evelyn Community already expressing interest and booking their garden plots.

Our Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) kids and our VCAL students in particular have already hired plots and have been busy planning their garden projects.

Some of our VCAL students for example, are currently working on a Social Enterprise that link to their work related skills units, in this case they are using the community garden to run a plant sales Social Enterprise called ‘Jeffery’s Garden’.  The aim of the Social Enterprise program is to re-engage our youth with the community and give them confidence and leadership skills. Jeffery’s Garden will be selling winter seedlings to the local community in Term 3 and they hope to continue this enterprise into Spring and Summer.  They want to provide the community with healthy and fresh home grown produce with 50% of their profits going towards the Guide Dog Association and Animal Aid and the remainder going back into the business to keep it running.

To reduce costs they are using recycled pots which have been donated by community members and recently they received a $50 donation from Bunnings Warehouse. They are grateful for any community contribution and ask if you have something you think might be useful including sharing your gardening knowledge please consider their needs. If you have any old plastic soft drink bottles or plastic pots, we have arranged a drop off bin in the kitchen at the Mt Evelyn Campus, 20 Old Hereford Rd.

Here’s what one of our students have to say about having a community garden at UYCH and what it means to them:

“As a part of the gardening group I am gaining knowledge and skills on how to take proper care for plants. I am enjoying working with my friends and doing something that I feel passionate about”. Gillian – VCAL Student

This is a very exciting addition to the UYCH Mt Evelyn campus and our local community. We can’t wait to see what plants, fruit and vegetables start flourishing from the garden plots.

If you’re interested in becoming a plot user, please fill in your details on our expression of interest form to or contact 9736 1457.

VCAL Students Getting Into Gear

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Our Mt Evelyn Campus recently ran a four day Changing Gears course to help young people get their learners permit. Changing Gears is an initiative of Mission Australia that provides an interactive and flexible learning environment to assist young Victorians prepare for their learner test.
Having a driver’s licence opens the doors of opportunity for employment and community participation. Changing Gears supports people to take the first step along this important pathway. The program presents the road rules in an interactive and flexible manner and has a very high success rate in assisting young Victorians to prepare for and receive their learner permit.

Yarra Valley Community School had 13 students participate in the Changing Gears program, 10 from Mt Evelyn and 3 from Yarra Junction. They participated in a three day classroom style course where they learnt the road rules through interactive games, videos and practise test. Then on the fourth day, they were taken to Vic Roads in Burwood to sit their test. 10 of the 13 passed and received their learners, which is a great success rate. The program was very popular and we have received a lot of interest in the next course being held later in the year.
Here’s what some of our students had to say about Changing Gears:

“It was a good opportunity to be able to achieve the completion of my learners. The teacher Rob was really good at breaking it down into an easier way to remember all the road rules and tips. If I didn’t have this course I probably wouldn’t have got my learners anytime soon.” – Keith VCAL Mt Evelyn

“My favourite part of changing gears was after doing the test at Vic Roads finding out I got 100% from the help of the classes.” – Liam VCAL Mt Evelyn

“I learned so much in the few days and it was the best experience. I thank Rob so much, he’s a wonderful guy.” – Tmia VCAL Mt Evelyn

“It was a really good experience and helped me so much. Thank you Rob” – Paige VCAL Mt Evelyn

“It was incredibly useful and we learned a lot! It was good.” – Sam VCAL Mt Evelyn

To find out more about the Changing Gears program and Mission Australia click here

VCAL Students visit the Essendon Football Club

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A visit to the Essendon Football Club, just the thing to inspire our students…

On Wednesday 22nd of April our VCAL campuses (Yarra Junction and Mt Evelyn) got together to go an excursion to Essendon Football Club. The students took the one hour bus trip out to Tullamarine to go and check out the new training facilities at the True Value Solar Centre.

When they arrived we were taken into the player’s lecture theatre where they met Josh Hose (Paralympian – Wheelchair Rugby gold medallist), Orazio Fantasia (Essendon footballer), and Kyle Langford (Essendon Footballer). Each of the hosts shared stories about their experiences in becoming successful athletes.

Josh Hose talked about how a car accident in 2005 led him to end up in a wheelchair and how he overcame a lot of difficulties to end up winning a gold medal at the London Olympics.

Orazio Fantasia spoke about how he had a tough experience at school and got into a lot of trouble before deciding to dedicate VCAL Students visit the Essendon Football Clubhimself to achieving his goals at school and in football.

Kyle Langford spoke about how he had been in a lot of trouble for fighting in his early teenage years before deciding that he needed to make better decisions if he was going to achieve his goals in life.

Michelle Murray (Education Program Coordinator at EFC) then took the students through a discussion about risk taking, smoking, drug use and peer pressure. A big thank you goes out to Michelle for organising these great programs and accommodating us for the last 4 years, we straitly appreciate it.

Image of the VCAL Students visit to the Essendon Football ClubAfter the discussions we had a chance to wear Josh Hose’s gold medal and take some photos. We also had a chance to ask questions of the speakers who were all very open and honest in their responses.

Then came the fun part – We were taken into the new indoor sports facility located in a huge hangar. We had the chance to kick the footy with the Essendon players and get to know them better. We also had Michelle and Josh take us through a game of “blind ball” where students were blindfolded and had to throw a ball with a bell in it towards the opposing team’s goal. All of the students had a great time during the sporting activities and got to experience something that they wouldn’t normally be able to.

Finally, we went on a tour of the facilities at EFC, which included their new gym, the locker rooms, the hot/cold pools and laps pool. The first joint excursion between the Yarra Junction and Mount Evelyn VCAL campuses was a great day for all involved.

Article by – Mark Hunt
VCAL Coordinator

If you know of someone that could benefit from our education services or would like to know more call
1300 835 235.