'Walk the Talk' Program
This year Tara students in Year 10 have been participating in the Enlighten Education program 'Walk the Talk'.
'Walk the Talk' is a pioneering program building awareness of domestic violence and women’s homelessness. The program empowers young people to support local women and children in need by ‘adopting’ their local shelter. Year 10 students at Tara this year have been partnered with the Parramatta Women's Shelter.
Phase one of the program is a half-day in school workshop and phase two is a community based service learning opportunity where students support the work of their local women’s refuge.
Due to online learning and COVID-19, Tara students were not able to proceed with many of the planned projects, such as morning teas and group events.
Read the article below from Jess in Year 10 about how we supported this wonderful initiative during these challenging times.
Jess – Year 10
Earlier this year at our Service Camp, Year 10 was invited to a program called 'Walk the Talk' in which we were partnered with a local charity, the Parramatta Women’s Shelter. We were encouraged to support them through fundraising and workshops. However, due to online learning and COVID-19, we were not able to go through with many of the projects we wanted to, such as morning teas and group events.
We decided that we could make self-care packs for the ladies at the women’s shelter as a way of supporting them. Many women come from crisis situations and having to uproot your entire life in such a short space of time is incredibly stressful. Not to mention having to figure out food for the week, new schools, clothes, fees and everything else that comes with moving so suddenly and it is all on top of the emotional strain of dealing with an abusive relationship. The massive amount of stress put on these women often means that self-care and looking after their own wellbeing is pushed aside to deal with the constant overload of things to look after. We decided that making these self-care packs would be a way of supporting them and encouraging them to take some time out for their own wellbeing.
So the frantic emailing and calling began! I emailed and called around fifteen different companies, which taught me a lot about how to deal with rejection when companies said no. But Bliss Skincare, The Body Shop Chatswood and Nice Pak Products kindly donated products for our self-care kits. We would really like to thank them for their generosity towards our cause, it really helped us!
Year 10 ourselves also contributed to this project, with $154 raised and over 100 products collected from the grade. It was a really great effort, considering that we collected all of that in just one week!
On our Friday year meeting, we presented these kits to Tania and Jacinda from the Parramatta Women’s Shelter. Tania is the Centre Manager of the shelter and told us a lot about her experience of working with women’s shelters. Jacinda is a Child Case Worker and she shared stories about how the women cope with moving suddenly and how the children adapt to the shelters.
This service project has been an incredible opportunity to give back to our community.
