ROOBY ROO VISITS ST MARYS LIBRARY FOR NAIDOC WEEK.

Rooby Roo hopped in to join her friends at St Marys Library Storytime for NAIDOC Week last term.  Maureen, our Indigenous Teams Community Connections Worker also came along and told her 'Emu Egg' story. After some singing and rhyming, Rooby and her friends joined in with the actions of the storybook 'My Country'.

 'My Country' is an Aboriginal picture book depicting the beauty of Australian landscapes and the importance of nationality and belonging. Rooby proudly wore her Koori vest and was able to stay back and have photos and hugs with her friends.

Being a student at Community Junction Inc.

My name is Naomi, and I am a student worker for Community Junction. I have been working with the Youth Team and found this a really rewarding experience. I have been working at Erskine Park, St Clair and North St Mary’s Youth Spaces. I have learnt a lot from the other youth workers and the young people, around my self-development as a student worker and I have found it to be a really fun experience. 

The whole team have been helpful and very welcoming, from the minute I started. I

absolutely love working with Community Junction and I find that their values and practices are admirable and very much a pleasure to work within. I cannot thank the Community Junction team enough, for their support and the wonderful environment they provide.

CRAFT N CHAT GROUP

Christmas in July was celebrated at North St Marys when the Craft n Chat group met and enjoyed a delicious lunch together. The group provided the lunch and decorated the table in a Christmas theme.  The group meet weekly and enjoy sharing skills of patchwork, knitting and catching up over a coffee.  

VILLAGE CAFÉ

Marj and Nia are regular participants of the Village Café that meet at Wattle Park North St Marys. The Village Café is designed to empower people over the age of 50 in North St Marys to improve their health and wellbeing.  The local residents of North St Marys enjoy coming to this free service as they can enjoy a free cuppa and take advantage of the health Information and activities that are on offer.  

Nia crocheted this Village Café sign using her amazing crochet skills. This will be displayed at the Village Café to let other residents know that they are meeting and all residents are welcome .

The Sista Speak Program

The Sista Speak Program has commenced at Shalvey Public School and we are currently working with year 5 and 6 Aboriginal girls.

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Alison a mobile hairdresser to talk to the girls about hair care, making homemade hair products and giving the girls some tips on braiding. We are all very proud of the girls and their creation of some fantastic braid styles on each other hair.  The girls got to take home a comb and a spray bottle with leave in conditioner they made for their hair. Sista Speak program is run in the school, the girls have visits from guest speakers, discuss issues impacting their lives and learn about culture and have a lot of fun.  

Girls Space - Self Defense Class

Our Term 3 self-defence program ran from Erskine Park Youth Space on a Friday afternoon .😊 Thank you so much to our awesome facilitator Ann Stirton from Akyu Martial Arts facilitating yet another AWESOME self-defense program for young women.

The girls were also graded on our final afternoon by Ann, and received a grading belt and certificate as well. Safe to say all the young women really enjoyed the program, made new friends and finished the term learning something new and feeling more confident within themselves. 

We will be continuing to work with Ann running another FREE “self-defense/ boot camp program come Term 4. 

REOPENING OF WERRINGTON YOUTH SPACE

While Werrington Youth Space was closed during Term 2, Pop-Up spaces within Werrington and Cambridge Park were developed for our Youth Workers to continue engagement with young people, while behind the scenes Werrington Youth Space went through an uplift to create a new look when it reopened. 

Werrington Youth Space reopened with a bang during the winter holidays for young people to enjoy new lounges, new stools, new colours and artworks, new beanbags and a new PS4. Young people have continued to enjoy the new look and new equipment during Term 3. Young people we met during the Pop-Up Spaces started appearing at Werrington Youth Space and started bringing friends.

The reopening of the Youth Space has been very beneficial for the young people within the Werrington and Cambridge Park Community, where young people can come in and relax on the couches, enjoy the sound of music playing throughout the centre, challenge each other on the new PS4, and enjoy various activities with the new equipment as well as meeting new people while hanging out at the space.