Working Community Program
About the Program
The Working Community Program (WCP) is based on a partnership model that facilitates local school, community, and industry relationships. The aim of the Program is to support students to develop a range of transferrable skills including Teamwork, Leadership and Communication (TLC) through a year-long program.
This 4-phased program structure incorporates a range of activities for students to develop TLC skills. It includes an induction day for all participating schools and students, classroom engagement with local community organisations to support learning about what is available for community, brokering local connections with organisations to support and develop student led projects and finally, the opportunity for students to present their work at an end of year presentation event to conclude the program.
Currently the Program is mapped to learning competencies in VCAL (including: Personal Development and Work-Related Skills, Literacy, Numeracy) which supports students to achieve senior school outcomes. This model can also be adapted for other year levels and learning programs.
Participating Schools in 2021
Three local secondary schools are participating in the Working Community Program, including Diamond Valley College, Eltham High School and Montmorency Secondary College with a combined number of over 100 students this year.
Participating Partners in 2021
This year, we have been fortunate enough to continue working with local community stakeholders to support a range of Community Engagement / Visits to local agencies that provide the community with assistance / support or service delivery of sorts.
Some of these have included:
- Headspace, Greensborough site
- Nillumbik Shire Council’s – Hurstbridge Community Hub
- MAS National
- Montmorency Eltham RSL
Students have completed the Working Community Program for 2021 with an online celebration and presentation of their student led projects.
Student led projects:
- An overview of the years’ work as part of the Working Community Program
- Ellis Cottage Project which included garden maintenance of the ground in partnership with Nillumbik Historical Society
- Zero Waste Project on clean waterways work including a range of workshops
- Healthy Bites Project, a month-long nutrition and cooking program on the health benefits of using healthy ingredients to fuel the body
- Micro Plastic, an exploration project on eradicating the use of plastics
- Stories from My Life, A letter exchange program with local senior citizens
- Fitzsimmons Lane, a project in which students learned about how to use wood as a resource
We are looking forward to welcoming new students and schools back to 2022 Working Community Program.
If you are interested in working with us at the LLEN and specifically with students in local schools, to present as a local community agency about what you do or to develop a local school and community partnership? We make the process simple for you.
For more information, please contact Tiziana (contact details included below).
Students Perspective and Presentations of the 2020 Working Community Program
To read about the Working Community Program from the student's perspective, you can download and view the following End of Year Student Presentations here:
- An overview of the Working Community Program inclusive of the 4 Phased Program Structure, click here.
- To read about the 2nd Phase of the Program with details about the Community (Virtual) Visits, click here.
- For information about one of the Program classroom projects undertaken on Cooking and Nutrition, you can click here.
If you would like to learn more about the Working Community Program please contact Tiziana on Tiziana@bnllen.org.au
Program Partners
We would like to acknowledge and thank the local schools involved in this Program and all the local partners and organisations for your ongoing collaboration and support. We would like to also mention Nillumbik Historical Society for their partnership and ongoing support of the Working Community Program.
