Gen Connect Project Launched

A project has launched this week connecting senior members of our community to local Year 11 VCAL students from Greater Shepparton Secondary College.  

Gen Connection is the brainchild of Elizabeth Lang, a teacher at the college, who wanted to create a meaningful project for her students that was relevant during the COVID 19 isolation restrictions. The project involves students phoning a senior buddy within the community twice a week to connect and also gain information about their buddy’s life in order to write a biography which forms part of their VCAL assessment. 

“It’s a project of mutual benefit, older local residents gain a new connection and students gain insights about their life which assist in addressing assessment tasks linked to the curriculum,” Ms Lang explained. 

The project concept was developed drawing in the skills of Shepparton South Rotary Club member, David Earle, and Greater Shepparton Lighthouse’s Industry Links project team.  

Lighthouse Strategic Project Coordinator, Amy Robinson, is passionate about the project aims and is providing overall support as well as helping with monitoring to ensure the ongoing success of the project.  

“Utilising David’s knowledge and connections, supported by Lighthouse’s monitoring and evaluation frameworks, we were able to source the residents and also create a structure that enables students to log their weekly conversations allowing us to evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of the project,” Ms Robinson said.  

“Some of the residents feel isolated, an issue that has only been exacerbated by this pandemic, so assessing increased levels of connection and overall happiness is paramount to this project’s success as much as the biography students create.” Ms Robinson said.  

“This is an example of community rallying together, all playing their small part to overcome a social challenge that has a huge impact on residents in our community.  Shepparton South Rotary is happy to be assisting to drive it’s success and create a structure for project expansion,” added Mr Earle.  

The project aims to expand in the coming months and is currently seeking additional mentors that may be experiencing isolation to come forward and get involved in the conversations.  

For more information on the Gen Connection project please contact Amy Robinson on 0438 308 581.