MENTOR ME RECONNECT GRADUATION

In Term 2 and 3 this year, students in Years 4, 6, 8 and 11 participated in the flagship program, Mentor Me Reconnect Program (MMRP). The program is facilitated by the Organisation of African Communities Western Australia (OACWA) in collaboration with Western Australian Police and the Department of Home Affairs. This year was the inaugural year we have offered the program to the Junior School students and it has very much been success.

MMRP is a culturally appropriate mentoring program that is designed to invest in building students’ skills to enhance positive development, increasing the student’s level of school engagement and their self-esteem, and giving them confidence to discover and develop their natural talents and potentials. Students take part in these sessions once a week for a period of twelve sessions. There are currently four thematic modules. School-based mentoring is one of four strands of mentoring focussed on by the MMRP. Mentors work collaboratively with students with African backgrounds, to support young African people with guidance on basic life skills, behaviours, and extra educational support. The aim is to encourage students to increase their confidence and to improve their school engagement.

Students concluded the program with an official graduation ceremony, the occurred on Friday. The ceremony consisted of special guests, graduation certificates and students recounting their experiences from the program. Some of the special guests included, Manana Johnson (OACWA Program Coordinator), Dr Casty Hughes (OACWA Vice President), Ms Jessica Shaw (MLA, Member for Swan Hills), Counsellor David Lucas (Mayor City of Swan), Hon Lorna Harper (MLA Member for the Eastern Metropolitan Region) and Meredith Hammat (MLA, Member for Mirrabooka).

We look forward to continuing the partnerships between OACWA and Holy Cross into 2023!

Mrs Christina Davini

Deputy Principal, Inter-relationships