HUME WEEK 7 TERM 4 2023

Hello everyone,

This is the final blog for our Hume group in 2024, so here is our weekly recap.

On Wednesday the 29th we collected our crew at Roxburgh Park station and headed straight into some reflection time. We allowed our crew time to work through their journals, chatting along the way. After taking a lunch break we got started on preparing for our bike donation that afternoon. We connected with The Bike Shed, a CERES affiliated organisation that works with the community to donate, repair and educate about bikes. The Bike Shed had kindly donated 3 bikes, preloved and pre serviced to us for our donation to the Broadmeadows campus of the Collingwood English Language School (CELS). The crew were tasked with organising their plan for the donation, the order in which they presented and what topics of importance they would talk about. This for them was an assessment task, to see how capable our group was to work together and how they presented at the school. Using Auri as a knowledge base, our crew defined their topics and the order in which they wanted to present, making a small game plan before heading to the bus and driving over to Broadmeadow CELS. When there we were reintroduced to Kylie, the wellbeing at Broadmeadow and soon situated ourselves and greeted our donation recipients. Though previously introduced our crew were a tad nervous but all that melted away when they began to talk about the bikes. Utilising a translator for further communication needs we watched on as our students went through step by step instructions about the bike and safety when riding. Each member of our group took their spot in the presentation and everyone stepped up to speak when there were gaps. Overall it was an extremely successful donation and our crew were both well versed in what to speak about and engaging in their presentation. Well done!

On Thursday the 30th collecting again at Roxburgh Park station we headed off for a day filled with graduation prep! We began with any additional reflection pieces they had in their workbooks before looking to our speeches for graduation. Having Auri, Alex and Oli (our volunteer) as stations for speech subtopics we let our crew write freely, having small incremental breaks and each taking turns with the facilitators. The crew were tasked with writing about an activity they enjoyed, what was challenging about it, what strengths they developed and what was a highlight of theirs. All having differing topics our group did well to also organise their places in presentations and what other aspects of the graduation they would take part in. They freely expressed their nervousness for the presentations and after speaking about it as a group and having ample time to revise and prepare their speeches most of them left feeling more confident about their graduation speeches. To finish off this day we decided to do something a bit more active, revisiting our favourite spot at Broadmeadows Aquatic and Leisure Centre, we held a small gym circuit. When done it was apparent that our group was both exhausted and ready for the graduation ceremony, though there were some complaints about it coming so quickly. Having a revising chat about the graduation ceremony plan our crew left our bus for the final time on the program.

December the 1st 2024 was our Graduation ceremony for our Hume group. It was filled with loved ones, school supporters and all our program crew and staff. Having Brendon Delaney as a representative of Operation Newstart he opened and welcomed everyone to the space before our students took over. Each individual took their time introducing themselves and talking about their topic while photos of them on the program showed behind them. They did extremely well, and although some might have felt nervous in the moment, they all presented what they wanted beautifully. Once this was over we watched our movie, a collection of all the videos we’ve taken spliced together and with a sprinkle of music. There were many laughs and smiles all round as we recounted our program together. Once done we welcomed Auri who held her own speech before presenting with Brendon for the students awards. Each having their own time in the spotlight we cheered for them and took some photos before Alex presented with the students thanking our partners before having her own speech and closing the ceremony.

This group has been an amazing support network of eager young people trying new and exciting things together. Each individual made this group better and without even one of them the whole term would have been very different. Thank you for everyone who supported us this term and well done to all our students and you should be proud of what you have all achieved!