“Equal education & employment outcomes for all young people” is a great vision. It took us some wordsmithing, slashing and simplifying to get it so sleek. It wasn’t easy. Our next task though, will be even more difficult but incredibly important. We are going to try and make our vision happen. We started by talking to our Committee of Management and asking their points of view and even made a video which you can watch at the bottom of the page. We also had a deep look inside the organisation to see what opportunities there were for us to become even more inclusive within our programs and supports for young people. We have added Diversity and Inclusion into our structures and have a designated staff member now guiding us and partners to be more effective in inclusive practice and engaging diverse young people. We learned a lot last year from Inclusion Melbourne who we partnered with to create the “taking that extra step” resource that supports community organisations to start, grow or maintain an inclusive volunteer program. You can download it free here: www.bgkllen.org.au/resources
The Victorian Government is doing some great work in its Education State Initiatives in schools already but we feel we will play a major role in taking that out to our small, medium and large employers through Structured Workplace Learning also. It is a new and different approach for us and takes things from the assumed to the doubled checked. We are very excited. We truly want every young person to be their best, whatever that may be, and we know that to achieve that, they must be happy as themselves.
If you want to work with us in supporting diverse young people through programs, work placement or partnerships, please contact Samantha Hewitson at samantha.hewitson@bgkllen.org.au