Salvos Schools address social justice issues
Salvos Schools Co-ordinator Bee Orsini presenting at the social justice conference. (Photo by Cal Harmer)
Over 200 students gathered to learn about topics from racism to social inclusiveness at the junior social justice conference in Auburn last month.
The second annual conference on 26 and 27 March was run by Salvos Schools and offered year 9 and 10 students the opportunity to come along and learn about social justice issues. More than 200 students and teachers attended the conference at Auburn Salvation Army, with 12 Sydney-based schools represented.
Salvos School Co-ordinator Bee Orsini said they were excited to be able to offer teachers professional development workshops during the conference for the first time.
“A lot of teachers are constantly looking for updated resources – they’re looking for volunteer opportunities and campaigns they can take back to the school. For a lot of them, that means going online and researching it, or going by word-of-mouth. So to put 15 or so teachers in the same space where they can talk to us but also to each other, they found that extremely beneficial,” said Bee.
“It is the first time that we’ve ever delivered a stream of professional development just for teachers. The feedback, especially from the teachers who attended both last year and this year, was extremely positive.”
Students and teachers took part in main stage sessions that addressed leadership development. A panel with Auburn corps officers Majors Paul and Robbin Moulds, Territorial Social Justice Co-ordinator Casey O’Brien, and members of the Auburn community who came to Australia as refugees, discussed the topics of refugees, racism and social inclusiveness.
In small groups, attendees explored specific social issues. They heard presentations from the Freedom Partnership, Salvos Street Teams, and online mental health service for youth, reachout.com.au. They also heard from The Salvation Army’s International Development team about Project Futures, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to end human trafficking and slavery.
“The ambassadors picked a few key areas they felt were really important to address. There were some reoccurring themes from last year, such as youth homelessness, refugees and human trafficking,” said Bee.
“However, the introduction of Salvos Street Teams was quite intentional by the ambassadors. They wanted a renewed conversation about binge drinking and the affects of alcohol that wasn’t the same old spiel.”
Will Small, a spoken-word artist who works at The Salvation Army’s Oasis Youth Network Wyong, provided creative ways for the students and teachers to share the information they took away from the conference.
“A student wrote on our Facebook page that she’ll never forget the experience. I guess sometimes you can underestimate the impact of what it is to invest in younger students and junior students who are not often regarded as being mature enough to take on these opportunities,” said Bee.
“Being in that space with young people who challenge some of the stigmas about the younger generation of self entitlement – we saw the complete opposite at this conference. I think that is quite a renewing feeling for us to work with.”
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