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Meet our brand new Salvo Ambassadors

23 July 2013
Meet our brand new Salvo Ambassadors

 Thirty-one students from 17 high schools across Sydney, joined together for a week of training as part of the Salvo Ambassador movement – a program that aims to develop young social justice leaders in communities across Australia. (Photo: Esther Pinn)


Thirty-one young ambassadors are part of the first-ever Salvo Ambassador Movement (SAM) run by The Salvation Army in the Australia Eastern Territory.

Representing 17 high schools across Sydney, the pilot program aims to develop young social justice leaders within the community.

One high school at a time, the program’s ultimate goal is to have an ambassador in every high school across Australia.

As a Salvo Ambassador, 15-year-old Chenny Chen, from Sydney Technical High School in Bexley, dreams of changing the world’s social injustices as a politician.

Chenny explains a few of his friends suffer from mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and depression, and this has left some of them homeless.

“They really wanted me to do something about it. I can’t say I fully understand what they’ve been through, but I’ve seen their pain.

“I don’t want anyone else to have the same chain-of-reaction circumstances they’ve been through. As an ambassador, I might be able to make a change.”

Matthew Gluyas, Territorial Mission Consultant – Youth Innovations, explains the program is about leadership development.

He also hopes the program will empower the ambassadors to approach members of the local community, such as the council and police, to discover what their community’s needs are, and what they can do to be part of the solution.

The Salvation Army’s School Liaison Consultant, Bianca Orsini, says the SAM program is is a great chance for young people to represent their community and positively influence how the wider community sees The Salvation Army.

“I was running awareness workshops about youth homelessness at various high schools and I realised we were empowering young people with knowledge but they had nowhere to express that,” she says.

“Our ambassadors have the capacity to advocate, to fundraise, to volunteer and to actually report to us as voices of community.”

Meeting fortnightly, each ambassador will work on projects such as the Red Shield

Appeal’s youth homelessness initiative, The Couch Project, and awareness days such as Youth Homelessness Matters Day and World Suicide Prevention Day.

SAM participant Lachlan Muir, a 17-year-old from William Clarke College in Kellyville, is passionate about helping those who are homeless. He is hoping to cook preservable food at his school to give to The Salvation Army to distribute. Seventeen-year-old Laura Reyes is already part of a social justice group at her high school, Mount St Joseph in Milperra. Now a Salvo Ambassador, Laura is passionate about creating further awareness about social justice issues in her school.

“If I can just make people aware, that will breed action. I think that at school, if I can find a creative way to present the information then it would inspire people to make a difference,” she says.

While Alison Zhou, 15 from Sydney Girls High School has never done any charity work, she says wants to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness in her high school as an ambassador.

“I knew there were other young people out there who were as passionate as I was. If we acted together we could make a difference, and that’s why I wanted to get involved.”

The 31 ambassadors have already spent a week in training at The Collaroy Centre in Sydney, learning about The Salvation Army, boundaries and youth homelessness.

They’ve also taken part in community projects including cleaning people’s houses, gardening, engaging with Streetlevel Mission’s street walk and preparing meals for the local community.

If you’d like to follow the work of SAM, see their Facebook page: facebook.com/SalvosAmbassadorMovement

Comments

  1. Well Done!

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