Bulletin 6 – May 30th - Drouin Secondary College

DSC VCAL STUDENTS
Support the Homeless
As a part of the Drouin Secondary College VCAL program the
Senior Literacy students have been studying homelessness and
implementing ways to support this huge issue in Australia.
To begin the unit of homelessness, the Year 12 VCAL classes
watched the ‘Oasis’ documentary filmed in Sydney, and witnessed
the lives that many homeless people are experiencing today. After
watching the film, full of true stories and real people, the senior
students were more determined than ever to learn more about
homelessness and devised ways they could help as an individual
and a whole community. Throughout the 12 weeks of studying
homelessness the main tasks the students had to successfully complete
in order to receive a Unit 1 pass were to present an informative
documentary and pamphlet to show to the Years 7 & 8 classes within
the college. The documentaries included statistics, images, and ways
to prevent homelessness, factors contributing to homelessness, what
homeless and houseless is and how homelessness in Australia is so
invisible to society.
Although the students of senior VCAL Literacy finalised and presented
a 10 minute documentary and an informative pamphlet, they felt their
contribution towards raising awareness and helping those in need
was not complete.
In order to raise awareness and help the homeless, the Senior
Literacy students decided the best way to inform the students of
Drouin Secondary College was to hold a casual clothes day, where
every student from the school was asked to bring a household
product or an essential item of need. This casual clothes event was
held on Tuesday, 14th May with the senior VCAL classes spending
their morning collecting products that the DSC students donated and
also monetary donations. Cans of food, toiletries, clothes, snacks,
packets of pasta and rice and much more created an enormous pile
of donations which were then sorted and packed.
To finalise this project the two VCAL classes embarked on a journey to
the Salvation Army in Melbourne on Monday, 20th May to deliver a
carload and trailer full of donations. As a result of this free dress day
there were 1500 items donated, all taken to the Salvation Army Project
614, where the students also participated in an education program
and learnt more about the homeless. The people at Project 614 were
overwhelmed with the donations and actions of these young Year 12
students. The monetary donations, a total of $213.50, were donated
to the Salvation Army in Warragul, supporting those in need.
As a reflection of the whole project, the greatest thing the students
found was that homelessness can happen to anyone and that with a
little hard work we can really make a difference in the lives of others
who are less fortunate than ourselves.
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