Stories From My Life
A project that supports students to achieve outcomes in personal, professional and enterprising skills aligned to VCE or VCE Vocational Major.
About The Project
Stories From My Life (SFML) is an intergenerational program that captures career and life stories from our ageing local communities.
The project brings together local secondary schools and residents from Aged Care facilities, Service Club Volunteers (such as Rotary or Lions Clubs) and community volunteers with a focus for students to learn about the life and career journey of a local older person. This learning is documented, and students create a presentation at the end of the program.
Activities related to this project are aligned to the school curriculum (VCE or VCE VM). Some of these activities include: an induction, planning and preparing for the interview, collating, and developing the information into a presentation and sharing their learnings with fellow students and volunteers.
2024 Project Data
6 Schools participated
7 programs
138 students
25 local community volunteers & 3 aged care partnerships formed
Aim & Objectives
The aim of this project is to:
- Increase the opportunity for students to engage with local senior and aged persons to develop personal and professional related skills
- Help reduce social isolation for our local aging population
- Provide an opportunity for a two-way learning process through the sharing of life stories
- Document and celebrate the lives of our aging community and;
- To achieve student education outcomes in literacy, personal development and work-related skills.
2024 Programs
Project 1: Our Lady of Mercy College
- Term 3: 7 weeks
- Year 12 VCE VM Class
- 12 students
- Hosted at BlueCross Ivanhoe Aged Care Facility
Project 2: Bundoora Secondary College
- Term 3: 6 weeks
- Year 11 VM Class
- 15 students
- 4 volunteers
Project 3: Charles La Trobe College (two programs)
- Term 3: 4 weeks (Benetas) & 5 weeks (on campus)
- Year 10 students
- 44 students
- Aged care hosted at Benetas The Views Aged Care Facility & 8 volunteers on campus program
Project 4: Melbourne Polytechnic
- Term 3: 6 weeks
- Year 11 VCE VM Class
- 15 students
- Hosted at Estia Health Heidelberg Aged Care Facility
Project 5: Diamond Valley College
- Term 3: 7 weeks
- Year 11 VCE VM Class
- 20 students
- 5 volunteers
Project 6: Concord School
- Term 3: 6 weeks
- Year 12
- 36 students
- 7 volunteers
In 2023, BNLLEN was a successful recipient of a Nillumbik Community grant for the Diamond Valley College SFML. The funds enabled the project to be documented in a video and booklet