D-A-S-H: Achieving a Sense of Belonging in and Connection to Local Community for Primary Students
Tracks
Norfolk Hall
| Tuesday, March 21, 2023 |
| 1:15 PM - 1:35 PM |
Overview
Natalie Kisilevich, Blue Light Victoria
Speaker
Natalie Kisilevich
In Schools' Program Manager
Blue Light Victoria
D-A-S-H: Achieving a Sense of Belonging in and Connection to Local Community for Primary Students
Abstract
Community trauma over the last few years has seen widespread disconnect and social isolation amongst children and young people. Research indicates that collective responsibility, local partnerships, youth voice and agency continue to be important mechanisms for recovery and rebuild.
D-A-S-H: Dynamic activities, Active voices, Safe communities and Healthy engagement is an innovative program that facilitates meaningful and protective partnerships for classrooms of Years 5 and 6 students with Victoria Police, emergency services and other community experts.
D-A-S-H adopts an experiential and inquiry-based approach to learning, offering students an engaging and enriching experience that builds community participation and connectedness, positive relationships and wellbeing. Weekly 90-minute sessions are facilitated in the classroom by specialist facilitators and supported by a range of community experts and agencies who act as learning partners alongside students. The program spans 8 weeks and culminates in a student led project that is funded and that harnesses the capacity of young people to generate solutions to real needs in their local community; affirming belief in their capacity to make a difference.
D-A-S-H was piloted across six classrooms in Victoria. It’s now being delivered to 45 schools in Western Victoria over an 18-month period.
Key learnings include: -
1. That D-A-S-H enables students to develop a stronger sense of belonging in and connection to local community and increases students’ sense of feeling able to generate positive change in their community.
2. That ‘service-learning’ programs can improve students’ self-esteem and social skills particularly when they are linked to clear objectives, involve community partners, and incorporate opportunities for reflection and youth voice. This affirms other ‘service-learning’ program research (see for example Celio et al., 2011).
3. Applying skills through a real-world, action-based community project helps motivate students to learn and uses a cooperative learning approach which builds emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills.
D-A-S-H: Dynamic activities, Active voices, Safe communities and Healthy engagement is an innovative program that facilitates meaningful and protective partnerships for classrooms of Years 5 and 6 students with Victoria Police, emergency services and other community experts.
D-A-S-H adopts an experiential and inquiry-based approach to learning, offering students an engaging and enriching experience that builds community participation and connectedness, positive relationships and wellbeing. Weekly 90-minute sessions are facilitated in the classroom by specialist facilitators and supported by a range of community experts and agencies who act as learning partners alongside students. The program spans 8 weeks and culminates in a student led project that is funded and that harnesses the capacity of young people to generate solutions to real needs in their local community; affirming belief in their capacity to make a difference.
D-A-S-H was piloted across six classrooms in Victoria. It’s now being delivered to 45 schools in Western Victoria over an 18-month period.
Key learnings include: -
1. That D-A-S-H enables students to develop a stronger sense of belonging in and connection to local community and increases students’ sense of feeling able to generate positive change in their community.
2. That ‘service-learning’ programs can improve students’ self-esteem and social skills particularly when they are linked to clear objectives, involve community partners, and incorporate opportunities for reflection and youth voice. This affirms other ‘service-learning’ program research (see for example Celio et al., 2011).
3. Applying skills through a real-world, action-based community project helps motivate students to learn and uses a cooperative learning approach which builds emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills.
Biography
Natalie Kisilevich is the In Schools’ Program Manager at Blue Light Victoria, building and sustaining relationships with primary and secondary schools across the state to enable the effective implementation of their school programs, Blue EDGE and D-A-S-H. Prior to joining Blue Light Victoria, Natalie has extensive experience working across schools systems and communities impacted by community trauma through her work in the headspace Schools and Communities division and the national mental health charity, SANE Australia. Prior to arriving in Australia, Natalie spent the first decade of her career as a trained high school teacher and went onto provide therapeutic support and wellbeing programs for young people in school communities across London and through the national child and young adult counselling service, Childline.
