GUEST SPEAKER - GARY PARSONS
Gary Parsons worked in RP for 15 years, then managed the Warrnambool Golf Club for 5 years. He has been working as the Program Coordinator of Standing Tall for 4 years.
Investing time and helping young people realise their potential is the basis of Standing Tall, an early intervention program aimed towards “at risk” students who are displaying early signs of disengaging from school and the community. These students are in need of additional support and encouragement that busy teachers just cannot provide. Standing Tall has been conducting mentoring programs at Brauer and Warrnambool Colleges since October 2010. The Warrnambool program commenced with 10 students and now supports 36 young people and a dedicated team of 46 community volunteers. Gary has been a driving force in developing the Standing Tall model and establishing a regional focus for the program which currently has 80 students attending mentoring sessions throughout the region.
The program recruits volunteers from the community to work one hour a week with a young student, during school hours. Mentors are interviewed to assess their suitability and undertake a rigid training program to prepare them for their mentoring role. At risk students who are identified as needing additional support by their teachers are invited to join the program, no student is told they must do the program, they must apply like the mentors and want to be in the program. Mentors are matched with the students and only work with one student. They work with that student one hour a week and stay with that student for a minimum of twelve months to a maximum of two years. The roles of mentors are varied and dependant on the needs of the young person they are supporting and their needs are many except for one common link ….. that is having someone who is there to listen to them.
Gary gave us an example of one of the students who has been in the programme.
By his own admission, Corey Wood was a shy lad about two years ago. That shyness however did not stop him from “playing up at school heaps”.
When Lisette Mill, his mentor from the Warrnambool Standing Tall program, first met Corey he was picking up litter at school as punishment for misbehaving.
More than two years later, Corey, 15, is not only free of litter duty but is communicating better and has found a direction for his studies.
Ms Mill said working with Corey had been initially very frustrating because he would barely speak to her.
But when Corey one day said he would like to fly planes, she found a path to help him better communicate with others and apply himself to goals.
She organised for him to go on a training flight where he took the controls of a plane.
“It was a great feeling,” Corey said.
He later joined the local air force cadets and has applied himself to his studies in the hope of training to be a pilot.
Corey and Ms Mill told of their experiences at an appreciation event on Friday for the Standing Tall program that has run at Warrnambool and Brauer colleges since 2010.
Standing Tall in Warrnambool does not receive government funding and is funded solely through the generosity of local businesses, philanthropic trusts and community grants. However, the program is outgrowing its funding base and still needs help to ensure a long term future. The programme costs $1500 per student for one year. Help can be in the form of becoming a strategic alliance partner of Standing Tall, by letting people know about the work they are are doing, or putting your hand up to become a mentor or provide your employees with community leave to be mentors on your businesses behalf.
By saying "l can make a difference" you will be giving these kids a chance to become valued members of our community, because one day they will make up future communities and then pass on the values and benefits given to them by programs like Standing Tall and the wonderful volunteer mentors.