yourtown creates brighter futures for young people and their families with their services tackling some of the toughest issues facing children, young people and families in Australia: homelessness, family violence, mental health and wellbeing and youth unemployment.

Lasallian Volunteers are welcomed and form part of the Brothers' community at Bankstown. There is access by train and bus to Australia's biggest city centre. Responsibilities in community can involve helping with home chores including gardening, cleaning, cooking and so on.

LaSalle Catholic College Bankstown is a Year 7-12 College.  The Lasallian values of Faith, Service and Community have always been at the heart of everything that happens at the College.  The Saint Yon Trade Training Centre is a facility that offers vocational pathways to students in Years 11 and 12.  Bankstown has one of the most ethnically diverse communities in Australia with over 60 different languages spoken by the people of this suburb.

One-on one and group Mentoring 

Mentoring brings a young person and a volunteer (mentor/role model) together to develop a positive professional working relationship. The goal of the mentoring relationship is to support and encourage the young person to build self-confidence. This is achieved by being a good listener and encouraging our young people to grow emotionally and socially.

Language litercy and numeracy teaching

yourtown volunteers provide an important service within language, literacy and numeracy support. They assist young people in developing their skills and confidence in their ability to learn.

Engagement activities 

Each yourtown site coordinates a diverse range of engagement activities designed to support a young person's social interaction, teamwork and self-confidence skills. Some of the current engagement activities include a variety of sports, arts, music, dance and pre-employment workshops.

This placement includes volunteering at La Salle Catholic College, Bankstown one day per week, supporting students from refugee backgrounds in class and assist with sport activities. 

Challenges: 

Becoming a professional staff member when some clients are the same age as you; supporting clients who have challenging lives/traumatic backgrounds, public transport journey each day, learning to live with others you have never met before.

Rewards:

Working with clients throughout their employment process; witnessing the growth and development of clients, developing relationships with clients and other staff members; practical youth work experience; sightseeing in Sydney.

Preferred qualifications and attributes:

Solid literacy and numeracy skills; interest in activity-based education.