On Thursday 31 October, OLMC teamed up with eight other Mercy Schools in Victoria to create the inaugural Seeds of Justice Conference for Junior Students (Years 7 and 8).
We took six fabulous students, who have been active in Social Justice initiatives already at the College, to this Conference at the Mercy Hub in North Carlton.
The main focus of Seeds of Justice is to create transformative experiences for students and staff by fostering engagement with Mercy Schools across Victoria and deepening connections and strengthened relationships and a sense of unity among Mercy Students.
This Junior Conference was created to provide an introduction to Seeds of Justice for these younger students and inspire them to become agents for change and young people of Mercy.
The theme of this conference was Homelessness, not simply as a problem to fix, but as a discussion about how we make assumptions and judgements about people experiencing homelessness, and how challenging our prejudices is an important first step in moving from charity to creating justice.
We were blessed to be able to take along a huge collection of non-perishable goods and food donated by Year 9 Pastoral Groups during Term 3.
As part of the conference, the students learned about St Mary’s House of Welcome and then sorted the products and put together hamper bags with a range of the products collected.
Our students travelled to St Mary’s House of Welcome in Fitzroy to deliver the hampers, where we were welcomed by the CEO Rubina who gave us a tour of the facility, and answered lots of brilliant questions by our students. They were so grateful and I think the students very clearly saw the difference that donations like this make.
Thank you to the Year 9 students, Pastoral Leaders and Year 9 Horizon for collecting these essential items.
Lauren Marquet
Social Justice Coordinator
