The Amiel Society Student Board Successfully Supports Three New Charities

The Amiel Student Board provides The Amiel Society (Official charity of St Leonard’s College) with a youth-focused perspective on social justice issues of local, national and international interest that focus on enhancing the life and outcomes for young people.

The Student Board is comprised of students from Junior School through to Senior School and via their work, seeks to develop long-standing relationships with charities that can make a difference to the lives of young people over time. They also hope to guide and influence current and future generations of St Leonard’s students to be mindful of their global responsibilities to humankind and to provide benevolent relief to people in need.

During the August Amiel Society meeting, three brilliantly researched proposals were presented by members of the Student Board:

• The Cova Project
• The Indigenous Literacy Foundation
• Frontyard Youth Services

As a result of their work, The Amiel Society has agreed to support these charities with a donation. The ongoing work of the Student Board will focus on promoting these charities within the College Community through awareness raising, volunteering opportunities, additional fundraising and forming ongoing relationships with these organisations.

Excerpts of the students’ proposals are provided below.

The Cova Project (Sophie and Jack, Year 12)

As we have extensively discussed as a Student Board, access to education is perhaps the most prominent issue facing youth around the world – with education being the critical resource for alleviating poverty – and consequentially empowering young people.

Lacking access to menstrual hygiene education and sanitary products can have a devastating impact on access to education and work, as well as general health and wellbeing. It is very typical for young people who lack access to sufficient sanitary products to miss school during the course of their period.

Based in Australia, The Cova Project is a registered Australian charity that works with young people in Malawi, Liberia, Ghana and Uganda to provide menstrual cups as well as funding hygiene projects and education efforts within communities and schools.

We believe that this cause is ideal for tackling access to education, while intersecting with other areas like access to healthcare and the empowerment of women.

https://www.thecovaproject.com/

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (John, Year 12)

The Amiel student board believes that this charity is exceptional, as the intention of this foundation is to enhance the literacy skills of young First Nations Australians through reading and writing.

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation is an Australian charity that works with First Nations people in regional and remote communities around the country. The charity’s intention is to ‘invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote communities to provide the tools and resources they request to shape the direction of their children’s literacy future’. They understand the importance of both reading and literacy, in enhancing the lives of First Nations people and providing them access to more opportunities.

The foundation also provides them with the opportunity to share their stories and culture, through the platforms that the foundation provides. We believe that this is meaningful and important, as it amplifies the voices of First Nations people whilst also providing them with the necessary literacy skills required to thrive.

https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/

Frontyard Youth Services (Ellia, Year 9)

Frontyard is a service for young people who are disengaged, at risk of, or experiencing homelessness in Melbourne’s CBD. Frontyard hopes to prevent people becoming entrenched in the cycle of homelessness by providing an integrated service model that addresses the physical, emotional and social needs of people aged 12 to 24.

Their services seek to understand the deeper issues that put young people at risk of homelessness to begin with and to encourage younger people to get involved in learning about the cycle of homelessness.

This also connects perfectly to our CUE program as Frontyard is one of the organisations that we connect with on the urban aspect of the program which focusses on youth homelessness.

While accommodation may bring comfort to young people left without a home, it’s not enough to stop the cycle of homelessness in the community. They support an integrated approach, which provides vulnerable young people with holistic, trauma-informed and healing orientated support to that works towards building confident new lives.

https://www.mcm.org.au/services/homelessness/frontyard

Lisa Slingsby 

Deputy Principal