There are more wise heads and grey hairs in the classrooms of Unley thanks to an innovative volunteer scheme. The successful program is a partnership between South Australia’s City of Unley and seven local primary schools.
Its principle aim is to match people 50 years and over with a wide variety of voluntary opportunities in schools. The project is designed to meet two needs in the community. The desire of older people to obtain meaningful community involvement and the needs of schools for more volunteers.
“Seniors benefit from the scheme by becoming involved in extremely meaningful work and communicating with teachers and students,” said Unley Council’s Community Services Officer, Devon Mellows. “Students benefit by seeing older people actively involved in their school and hearing about their life experiences, while staff benefit by having assistance that is relevant and useful.”
Activities in which seniors may become involved range from reading stories through to discussing careers, assisting with outings, becoming involved in special school events, helping with foreign languages, supervising activities in the school grounds, helping with before and after school care programs, becoming a mentor, or simply discussing their life.
‘Seniors in Schools’ is the only project of its kind in the locality and it can easily be adopted for use by other Local Government bodies and schools at pre-school, primary and secondary levels.
For further information contact Devon Mellows, telephone (08) 8372 5144.
