Community and Service

Uniting Church Schools Student Forum

The annual Uniting Church Schools Student Forum was held recently at Penrhos College. A group of Year 10 boys took part. This is their report:

"The theme of the forum was 'Be The Change', looking at social injustice and educating us about our responsibilities as the youth of the community. We took part in activities, team challenges and listened to public speakers who had personal experiences with these issues. Students attended from Uniting Church schools all across the Perth metropolitan area.

Since attending the Student Forum we have all taken away many valuable lessons, especially the importance of ensuring a community for all. We learnt that as fortunate people, this gives us a responsibility to help others in the community dealing with issues of homelessness, domestic violence and many other social issues.

Education is the first step towards achieving an equal society and hopefully a society without social injustices. All those who attended learnt important lessons about these issues and took those lessons away to their own school communities. The Uniting Church Student Forum was a valuable experience and we are sure all schools involved will take action to 'Be The Change' and make a difference to those around them."

Romily House

The following is a report by a group of Year 10 boys who visited Romily House, located at Shenton Road just down from the College.

"Community Service at Scotch went down Shenton Road to visit Romily House located in Claremont to socialise and meet the people who stay for long periods at the care centre. The people who we visited were going through severe mental illnesses. This was definitely an eye opener for our service group as we got to meet and listen to the people's stories and how they got to that stage of their illness.

Romily House has been around for 25 years and provides residential care for sixty people. Most of people who are there are permanent residents and regularly get visits from friends and family. The house advocates for people who suffer from mental illnesses such as, schizophrenia, PTSD and bipolar disorder. The house supplies accommodation for those who cannot find it themselves. Romily House also holds a psychiatric facility.

While we were in the centre we played games of scrabble and other board games with the residents.

The benefits for the people who live there is that they are free to go anywhere and are not permanently confined to the property and can socialise with other people who have mental illnesses, as well as visitors from outside. For the community, Romily House provides a valuable service in caring for and looking after these vulnerable members of our society."

Friday Afternoon Year 10 Service Activities on May 20

Clockwise from Top Left:

• Akram Azimi and boys in 'MAD World': Social justice and advocacy.
• 'Tranby' group in East Perth rolling Street Swags for the homeless
• 'Habitators' working with 'Friends of Lake Claremont'
• 'Paraquad Rec' boys at the Paraquad Centre in Shenton Park
• Tuende Pamoja (ICEA) group discussing reconciliation.
• 'Stablemen' working at the Therapeutic Riding Centre.

Year 10 International Exchanges

There will be an Information Evening for parents of boys currently in Year 9, to be held in the Bunning Resource Centre on Monday 30 May from 6.30pm. There will be an opportunity to ask questions following a short presentation. Boys and parents who have been involved in recent exchanges will also be present to respond to any queries. (The photos above are of Stewart Wallace (Year 10, Keys), currently on exchange to Jordan).

Mr Bill Cordner

Director of Community and Services