Moreland Term 2 Week 8
Hi everyone!
Last week of the program! How fast did that go?!
On Wednesday we spent the morning at the Oxygen Youth Space where the students worked on completing tasks in their journals and started to prepare for their graduation. For the afternoon, we had our bike donation project where we donated brand new bikes supplied by Good Cycles to newly arrived students at the Collingwood English Language School. We spent some time in the gym at CAS first learning about the ABCDE bike safety check. Each young person then had a role for when we presented the bikes to the new owners. The newstart group became the teachers for a change which was great to see. They all communicated effectively, were patient and showed respect to the young recipients. We believe they all received great joy in donating the bikes and a sense of pride for their act of kindness.
On Thursday morning we spent some time discussing everyone's program achievements and completing reviews from the previous weeks' activities. The young people then had the time to create their graduation speeches which they did really well to put their head down to focus. After lunch we had our last boxing session with Sal in Maribyrnong. Sal saw us three times during this program and he was able to see the progression of the student's abilities, efforts and mindsets. He let us all know we were doing really well and glad to see the effort the young people were putting in. There is room for improvement always so it was encouraged for the students who were into boxing, to continue the sport in their own time. We also discussed how exercise is a great coping strategy when we are feeling down as it has so many mental and physical benefits. This was a great session that made us work up a sweat and get the adrenaline pumping! Sal has been a massive inspiration and positive role model for the students and is a great way to finish off the program.
Friday was graduation day! The students did an incredible job with presenting their speeches especially because they were feeling nervous. Thank you all for sharing your experiences with the crowd. We are so proud of the students and what they have managed to achieve during this program. All their efforts and success is a credit to themselves and this is an experience that they will never forget. They have all gained new friendships and of course the memories that will last them a life time. Well done for stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a chance on yourself. Thank you to absolutely everyone who was involved on this term's program! We could not run this program without you.
