NILLUMBIK TERM 4 2024 WEEK 7

Hey everyone,  

Welcome to our final week and blog post for Term 4 2024! This week was full of excitement and nerves preparing for graduation!  

To start off the week we had our final gym session with brad, involving a full group basketball game. Pressure and competitiveness were high as this was our last game of the term! It was great to end our gym journey with an activity we have done each week with the whole group getting involved!  

After this we visited Eltham's Men's Shed where we got stuck into building a picnic table that students would later donate to the Nillumbik Youth Hub! The volunteers at The Mens Shed Russell, John, Martyn and Bruce had precut all the Timber and pre drilled holes helping the crew assemble it easier! Starting off with the legs the students got to use drills and grinders to put the bench together, all working together to fit the timber into the correct place. After a few hours we stopped and enjoyed a big lunch with the volunteers of Men's Shed! After lunch students added the legs to the table top and we had a functional table! It was awesome to see the final product after a day of hard work and learning new skills! Thank you to the Men's Shed for your guidance and allowing students to create a great piece of furniture for the Youth Hub! 

The Bench was then dropped off to the Youth hub on Thursday in preparation for our graduation!  

Thursday was full of fun activities and grad prep! We started the day at the youth hub with students finalising their journals for the term and begun writing their graduation speech reflecting on our favourite moments on the program! After this we headed off to Northlands shopping centre for our celebration activity, laser tag! After some lunch we got stuck into it with boys vs girls teams for our first game! Boys were victorious but the girls put up a great fight. Our second game was a free for all, with Laura coming out on top!  

On Friday we had our Graduation! With speeches ready to go and students being presented with their operation Newstart hoodies the vibes were high as were the nerves! It was awesome to see parents, teachers and service providers some out to support the graduates! We started off with student speeches where they reflected on a chosen character strength and an activity they used this in, students mentioned some of their funniest moments and overall experience throughout the term! They were then presented with their graduation certificates and a booklet of all their acheivements on the program! Students then presented and thanked service providers for their support and contribution to the program! After this we watched a movie of a collection of photos and videos from the term!  

A special thanks to Nate and Francis and everyone involved in the Nillumbik Youth hub for your support and allowing us to use your space for our graduation and during the term, as well as giving students and guests an insight into your services and options for students to visit and gain some support within their community!  

A very big thankyou to all staff, family, friends and community organisations who were there to celebrate the graduates, your dedication and support has gone a long way and helped the students immensely!