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I Learned….

When I returned from Australia, after spending a month studying in Melbourne and a week romping around Cairns and Sydney, I found it difficult to answer simple questions asked by family and friends. You see, talking about all the “vacation-like” aspects of the trip was easy. Seeing all the beautiful national parks, driving down Great Ocean Road, and scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef were all fluffy things that are easy to talk about. However, when asked about my time in Melbourne, I struggled just a bit. It was actually quite difficult because, even though we had a similar pattern each day of visiting agencies, interacting with staff, and interrogating them with our mounds of questions, each visit gave me new things to think about. Despite studying under the umbrella of social work, there was so much variety in each visit, and I ended every day with my head full of copious amounts of information.

Overall, I was able to connect each visit to the soul factor of public health care. Australia has so much to offer in regards to public health. Because they have a free public health care system, the Australian citizens have greater opportunity for primary or preventative health care, as opposed to secondary or tertiary care. This means they have greater access to stopping the problem before it becomes a dire situation. I found this most astonishing and helpful as it refers to mental health. It seemed as we went to all of our agencies, they had a huge focus on making sure their “clients” had access to those free public mental health services. Whether it be family therapies, grief and bereavement, or even therapeutic playgroups, mental health care was overwhelmingly recognized across the board. This was exciting to see because, not only can I personally relate to this through experiences with my family but also, I can relate in a professional setting with the children I work with and their families.

Diversity…

This focus on mental health is especially helpful for Australia’s large diverse demographic. Similar to the United States, Australia has a dark past with the first peoples on their land. Aboriginal families were torn apart when first settlers came in and colonized the area. This, like many other discriminated minority groups, created a cycle of drug abuse and mental health issues through generations. Hence, the importance of free public health services for these groups. It can be incredibly difficult for discriminated groups, like the Aboriginal people, to find time, money, and resources to fix ongoing cycles like these. Almost all of the agencies, minus one, had specific services for Aboriginal children and families. And all agencies had free services relating to mental health.

The one agency that did not have specific services for Aboriginal families, had specific services for immigrants instead. Immigrants, for the majority, represent Australia’s population because, similar to America, it was also colonized. Culture identity, whether a person is new to Australia or from later generations of immigration, is a huge part of creating a healthy self-image and a strong community. Because of the free social services, Australian agencies are able to provide support for these families and communities, which again includes mental health. I don’t think these agencies could of stressed enough the importance of mental health services. I personally thought this was something our culture could investigate and maybe even learn from.

As It Relates to My Profession…

Before I began this month long adventure in Melbourne with Ohio States Social Work department, I had very little experience with social workers. From my past experiences in public schools, I had only ever experienced social work through child protective services. Therefore, I had a very narrow idea of not only what social workers did but also, what their ultimate goals were in this field. To be honest, I came to this trip to learn more about social work so that I could “work the system” and be an advocate for my students. I had no idea that the few situations that I saw were rare and stereotypical.

By visiting all the amazing agencies and sharing experiences through open dialogue with my peers, I have come to gather that social workers are actually not meant to be “kidnappers”. The ultimate goal, in the realm of child protective services, is to make sure that the child is in a safe environment and to give services to help either keep the child with their biological family or reunite them as soon as possible.

Over all, the places we visited had a lot of resources for the parents who can be struggling from a range of things. When seeing this over and over again at each agency, it clicked for me. I have always been a child first advocate because I work with them daily, and I see the effects of a poor home environment. However, it never occurred to me that in order to fix the home environment, the family needs supports and services as a whole. Though now that seems so obvious, it is difficult to step back and see parents as victims of things involving mental health, drug abuse, etc. when you are working with their effected children.

I have learned now to use an objective lens when looking at fragile social situations. I think this can be further applied when I have a student in need of protective services. As their teacher I can work with the parents, foster caregivers, etc. with a more open heart and mind.

Final Summary…

With these agency visits, I was able to learn so much about the social service system as it pertains to children and young people. This is a system that works on keeping children and young people mentally well. It helps keep environments safe and beneficial to the child along side striving to keep families together. This system uses a wide range of services like; therapies, trauma prevention, foster care, phone apps, playgroups, financial aid, crisis aid, etc. to help families get through hard times and make it out on the other end with healthy meaningful relationships. The system, like many others, is ever changing and always growing. As more and more research is established, the field will only continue to do this.

Overall I found myself growing as a knowledgeable professional from this trip. I have grown in my skills of networking and creating relationships with companies/agencies. I have created an investigator out of myself, and I am now always questioning the system, even when I agree with it. I am now more able and confident to reach out to services in the United States and find agencies that will benefit those in need. But most of all, I have learned the importance of preventative mental health services especially when it pertains child welfare.

I hope that with this knowledge I will be able to communicate the importance of social workers and services to families I work with. In my profession, I hope to take everything I learned here and further research it as it relates to children’s education. It is so important when working with children with disabilities to be involved in their whole life. With the skills learned on this trip, I feel I will be able to create better relationships with parents and caregivers. I will be more aware of situations and be able to further investigate the origin of a disability or disorder, which will in turn help my work immensely.

This trip has changed me as a person and a professional. I think the reason it is so difficult to talk about my time in Melbourne is because there are just not enough words to express the how much I changed within the span of 28 days. I am incredibly grateful for my time spent in Australia and I am already making plans for my return.

-Kathryn

Our time in Australia unfortunately has to come to an end this week. This past week has been very busy with agency visits, but we’ve also had time to explore Melbourne.

I (Emily) could connect the most with Berry Street organization. This service conducts playgroups for foster children and their carers, and parents. Berry Street was one of my favorite agency visits out of all nine of the agencies. I was so happy to finally have an interaction with parents and children, and to observe the different relationship styles between the foster carers and their children. Berry Street’s organization has a passion in connecting the relationship between the children and their carers. I truly do love the work that they do to interact foster carers, and parents and children all together. The staff at the agency during playgroup seemed to genuinely love these families and children. They care for these children truly, and their parents.
We made food for the children, sang songs, and even painted with them. This really lightened my mood and I was so happy to interact and play with the children. I feel that the children do love this group. After the play group many of the staff came together to give us a lecture on their programs. My favorite lecture was the one on domestic violence. I loved the family violence team information. They respond to every single referral (900-1000 per month) and that they look at risk factors, and always the high risk list. This is very important I believe and every referral should be looked at.

During the visit, I was very intrigued to know if many of their clients are less likely to leave an abusive relationship if there is a family pet involved. I was informed this is an issue here just as much as America. Sometimes during interviews and assessments individuals do not think to ask children or families about pets enough in the family household, and it needs to be assessed more because they do get abused, and also children will tell animals things that they will not tell people. There are not enough shelters available to victims where they can bring their household pets.

One day I would love to work with individuals of domestic violence in a shelter where they can bring their pets. In the shelter counseling and meditation could be provided. This is my dream, and this experience in Australia has helped me to narrow down my true interests and what I want to do with my career! I am so truly thankful and blessed to have been able to go on this trip. I also am so fortunate and thankful to my supervisors for planning and creating this trip, and setting up all the agency visits. This is a life changing journey, and one that I will never forget!

I (Megan) also very much enjoyed this week of agency visits! Berry Street was definitely one of my top visits as well. It was so nice to be able to interact with the kids in the playgroup, and have the privilege to help set it up. The playgroup’s aim is to foster positive attachment, and these kids and parents seem to be doing a great job of it. 🙂

Berry Street is doing great things. They recognize foster parents, carers, and parents need support as well. They offer respite services where a child or children may stay in another’s care for (typically) one weekend out of the month to help the parent or parents recharge and take care of themselves. Allowing the parents to care for themselves and their needs during this time definitely helps in sometimes complex or difficult situations like foster care or families involved with child protection. This program also allows the kids to form other attachments with another family once a month; to see how they may function and to have other adults to look up to. I really loved hearing about this program, it seems to work quite well!

These three weeks in Australia have been life-changing. I definitely have learned a ton and I’m sure the entire group has a ton of new ideas to bring to their experience here in the states. Each country has their pros and cons and can definitely learn from each other’s systems.

The past week in Melbourne was bitter sweet. While we enjoyed visiting the last four agencies on our agenda and learning about the services they had to offer, it was hard to say goodbye to the city that was home for three weeks and to the people we have come to know as close friends. While many of us are traveling on, the main part of our Australia adventure is now complete, leaving us with great memories and insight to reflect on.

One agency that was of particular interest to me (Laura) was the Bouvarie Centre. Having a background in psychology, I was really excited to visit a mental health agency and learn about their family approach to children’s mental health care. I found it interesting to learn about the history of Bouvarie and the fight to turn it into the family-focused agency it is today. I liked that we talked about other systems potentially involved in a child’s life that would affect their care instead of focusing only on the family system. While the family is obviously an important factor, I liked that Jeff mentioned that they look into all the factors in a young person’s life as they all work together to make an individual who they are. Therefore, it is important to have an understanding of the various systems and how they impact one another in order to treat a person successfully. Discussing this approach to practice brought me back to the many social work classes I took this past year learning about the importance of just such an approach.

While I appreciated Jeff’s insight using a multi-system approach and the overview of the center and its history, what I valued the most out of the day’s visit was the time spent discussing the single session therapy approach. This concept was completely new to me as it seems we have spent time in class learning about therapy and treatment methods with the assumption that we would spend multiple sessions with one client. However, Jeff shared some surprising statistics with us that contradicted this idea. He said that a majority of people who seek out therapy only attend one session. What really shocked me about this is that of those who only attend one session, 75% feel were happy with the session and feel like it helped. Jeff’s argument, therefore, was that we need to conduct our therapy sessions with clients as if it will be there only one, and with this new information, I couldn’t agree more.

These statistics along with the advice Jeff gave about conducting a single session therapy appointment have changed my views on mental health treatment. If the clients have more say in the direction of a session, more than likely they will get the greatest benefit from it which is ultimately what a therapist’s goal should be – to help a client the best they can. Even though most people do not return for a second session, I liked that the Bouvarie Centre allows them to come back for services at any point. This ensures people have a place to come for help when they need it, and if the first session is successful in helping them, they will be more likely to utilize such a service in a time of need. One factor the group kept returning to on the trip that makes this access to care easier than it is in the States is universal health care. All of the many services offered at Bouvarie are free which greatly simplifies a child and family getting the necessary mental health resources. While we are a long way from making this a possibility in the U.S, learning about the relative ease of access Australians have to medical resources (and mental health resources) has made me more critical of the American system.

As Laura pointed out, our last week in Melbourne was emotional to say the least. Emotional to see friends go and surprisingly emotional at our agency visits as well. Personally, my (Elena) experience at VICSEG was conjured unexpected feelings. To back track a bit, VICSEG stands for Victorian Cooperative on Children’s Services for Ethnic Groups. This social service agency aims to help refugees and other immigrants adjust to life in Australia and get their lives settled comfortably in a new country. I deduced that simply from the introduction by Janet and John that this day would remind me a lot of my family, specifically my parent’s journey to America. And it did. Although my parents were not refugees from Lebanon, they did immigrant due to conflict and war and have been in the U.S for over half their lives now. It surprises me how detached they have become from their childhood and young adult life in Lebanon. Not to say that those memories aren’t still there, but I know and they know that their lives are here now. That’s easy to say now but not a day goes by during these three weeks that I don’t remind myself of why I’m here in Australia living what once seemed like an impossible dream—it’s because of Mum and Dad. Their hard work, determination, resilience, and love have gotten them through thick and thin.

With a lack of U.S education and money, they have obtained a life for each other, my siblings and I, and their direct family. After watching the film at VICSEG, these were the thoughts and memories I had floating through my mind. Those thoughts broke through in the form of tears I couldn’t hold back any longer. Saying I could relate to the families in the film is a very far stretch because my parents (from what I know of) and my siblings and I have never had it that hard. Nothing in the realm of it. But luxuries, vacations, being job free as a teenager weren’t in the cards for my family. Every day is work. And when you’re your own boss, in the case for my parents, work is from sunrise to sunset. That effort is something I never take for granted and is what I’m grateful for having instilled in me growing up. I look at my experience and don’t take anything for granted and capitalize on every opportunity. That is what I find refugees and all immigrants can relate to. Life being hard and knocking you down but getting back up and working even harder for even just a glimpse at a better life. The services VICSEG implements to support these people and their children is extraordinary, especially with how diverse Australia is. Transitioning to what feels like a whole new world is unimaginably difficult, and having even one person let alone an entire social service agency dedicated to helping you along on your new journey is remarkable. And for that alone, I appreciate and respect what VICSEG does for the state of Victoria.

Coming here, it seemed as if all of us pretty much thought Australia was going to be a “white” country. Just walking though the airport, we quickly learned that this country was very diverse. As we spoke to earlier in our first blog post, the city is very rich in different cultures and ethnicities. Walking down the street one may see an Aboriginal, or someone from India, Vietnam, or perhaps someone from the Middle East. Many of our agencies have repeated, “More than 50% of the Australian population has at least one parent who was born overseas.” With this in mind, the work that VICSEG is doing is so absolutely critical.

At VICSEG, they recognize the struggles and the hardships that refugees and immigrants face when coming to a new country. They may struggle with not only the language, but also cultural norms and even simple things such as how to purchase items at the grocery store. In class, many of us have learned of the hardships in theory, but to solidify our understanding VICSEG played us a video following the refugee stories of two families on their way to Australia. One family coming from a dirty refugee camp in Burma was use to not having electricity and struggling for food. The other family was coming from Africa to reunite with their eleven-year-old daughter, Lily, who was separated from them as an infant during war. None of us, including some of the workers, guessed how this video would make us feel inside. Until this point, too, we had not realized how diverse our own group of fourteen was as well- we have two students with Italian heritage, a student with parents from India, one student from Vietnam, a student with a Lebanese father and Parisa’s father is from Iran. The video hit Parisa close to home because it reminded her of her Papa and him moving to the United States alone in the 1970s during the Iranian Revolution. He moved to America without a firm understanding of the language and also experienced several bouts racism. Though we all became very emotional, there was a great silver lining: the families on the screen and our families had all shown enormous amounts of resilience.

VICSEG is an organization whose work is ninety percent focused on training. They offer English as a second language courses in a variety of languages since many of their demographic come to Australia with no formal language training, if any. Additionally, they offer playgroups that bring mother and child together to learn English by singing songs in both languages. Another great program is their mentoring program, which utilizes established immigrants to teach newly arrived refugees how to do basic things such as using an ATM. As a whole, VICSEG does an amazing job of understanding “culture and its function in human behavior and society, recognizing the strengths that exist in all cultures” just as The National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics suggests.

Demi and Parisa

This week we went to many agencies that focused on children and relationships with their caregivers. We learned at lot about the system and how the government is supporting these types of families. We know that healthy relationships and bonds are especially important for children at a young age and this week especially emphasized this.

At Berry Street and the Bouverie center, we were reminded to consider the whole person whenever working with clients. Rather than make any assumptions about why a parent may not be able to care for their child, we have to try to understand the backgrounds that the parents have come from. Berry Street took a unique approach to building relationships between foster carers, the children, and their biological parents by inviting everyone to a playgroup together that meets once a week. Various activities are conducted throughout the day to engage the carers and parents with the kids and provide a framework for the kids to rebuild some of the bonds of attachment that may have been lost. It hasn’t been long that they have integrated both the foster carers and the parents in the same playgroup, but it seems to be going well. We found it especially interesting that in Australia, they refer to the second-carers as foster carers rather than foster parents. This may be why it is a little bit easier to integrate the various family members because the foster carers are coming in as a second support rather than as a replacement parent.

At Vic Seg, we gained insight about children in immigrant families and it was mind-blowing. We got a look into two families’ eyes about being strangers in a new country. They had to start from the ground up and rebuild their lives from nothing. It was emotional especially for me (Vy), but also a couple of our classmates because we have parents that are immigrants and we are immigrants ourselves. While watching the video we were reminded that we all have different beginnings and that you cannot judge someone by the way they speak, look, sound, etc. People are unique and diverse, and that is what makes our world beautiful. We all have different experiences to reflect on and gifts of wisdom to share with one another. The bonds and relationships we form with the people we meet should be appreciated and cherished because that is what makes us vulnerable, relatable, and human.

Week three has been quite the whirlwind of agency visits and last minute explorations! We were able to visit a foster care agency called Berry Street, a family therapy center called Bouverie, a community organization center for ethnic communities called VicSeg, and a child services center called Anglicare. Some of us also attended a seminar on healthy eating and self-care led by Don Tomlin. If you have ever heard him speak, you’ll know he’s a smidge radical about food being the only medicine our bodies need and about doctors being our body’s public enemy number one…While I did walk away with some useful facts about fruits and vegetables that I didn’t learn from the food pyramid in elementary school, I also did not cancel the appointments I have scheduled with my doctor and my dentist for the week I arrive back in the U.S.

To continue, we have decided to focus and reflect on two different organizations that particularly impacted us. Chloe really enjoyed our visit to VicSeg, while our visit to Anglicare resonated more with Kathryn. Find our impressions and photos below!

Vicseg-

VicSeg (New Futures) stands for: Victorian Cooperative on Children’s Services for Ethnic Groups and New Futures Training. They are a community development organization that focuses more on prevention than direct service. 90% of their organization’s focus is on training and capacity building in the ethnic communities in Melbourne. As part of their trainings, they partner with many service providers out in the communities to help increase cultural competence so these service providers can better understand the populations they are working with.

“I absolutely love VicSeg’s emphasis on partnership and working together to build healthy communities and help newly arrived families achieve independence in an unfamiliar culture. One quote that particularly stuck with me is, “You don’t have to be a social worker to make an impact on your community.” Helping people is a mindset and an attitude – not just a profession. VicSeg has multidisciplinary teams and work with many different kinds of people to build up communities. I think it is a valuable message to remember that we all have a responsibility to our communities and that we will each have something unique to offer. I am also inspired by their commitment to prevention and early intervention work through their trainings. They place an emphasis on teaching people how to be independent and then how to also pass along those skills along to others in the community. I believe this is the most effective way to strengthen a community and to make it sustainable.” -Chloe

Anglicare-

Anglicare is an organization that provides support to children, young people and families. Through services like; family service programs, foster care placements, crisis aid and the TEAHaR Program, Anglicare is able to provide support to 80,000 children and families a year. Anglicare believes that the best way to do child care is through a multidisciplinary approach which is reflected through their wide verity of services.

“I was really blown away by Anglicare’s TEACHaR program. This program addresses the education gap by working with clients who are going through or have been through trauma. By using trained special education teachers, they are able to create IEP goals with the general education teacher and guardians that are measurable and attainable. Furthermore, since they are using teachers, the Anglicare staff member can take over the class room while the actual teacher spends one on one time with the child. I felt this was especially important because thins gives undisrupted attention for the child from an adult of authority. Not only will this help the child build trust in teachers and school, but it will also help them to generalize and build trust with any authoritative figure. This is important to me because as future educator, I hope that I am provided with the same transparency about my students that Anglicare has provided to their clients teachers. It is important to me to invest time in my students and make sure they are receiving the right supports and appropriate educational practices. I feel that Anglicare does this and excels!” -Kathryn

Final Thoughts

As we finish our trip we are left with many wonderful impressions of the city of Melbourne. From the Little Italy on Lygon Street to the metropolitan rooftop bars on Brunswick Street, to the history and culture filled museums, this city has plenty to offer all kinds of kinds. The people here are incredibly diverse and were kind and welcoming to us visitors. The health care here is public, which allows for amazing services including mental health, to those in need. Over all this city is an urban stir-fry of amazing people and organizations. This experience has allowed us to reflect on and compare Australian policy, services, culture and lifestyle to our own country. Though Australia’s population is considerably smaller, we still find ourselves left with our eyes wide open to different ways, and in some cases arguably better ways, of organizing communities and serving people. It has been an amazing experience and inspired us to go forth and continue to pursue change in the U.S. for the welfare of our people and of our youth.

-Kathryn And Chloe

This week was jam packed with agency visits and an incredible road trip along the Great Ocean Road. One of my favorite agency visits was with the Lighthouse Foundation. They are a privately funded organization focused on supporting homeless youth through providing a home, family, and therapy. The age range of the young people that they work with is from 12 to 18, but the average age is 17. This surprised me at first, as I had assumed there would be a greater amount of younger teens involved in the program, but they specifically target their program to the older group. Seventeen is the age that many people begin to be cut off from support from their families, as kids move away from home for the first time. This is an extremely difficult transition period, and as Lighthouse explained their program, multiple names came to mind that could have benefitted from a supportive home that taught relationship and practical life skills. In America, we have recently recognized the need for support for kids who have aged out of the foster care system, but there are a ton of other kids who are kicked out of/choose to leave the house at 17 or 18, and are left to fend for themselves in a world they are unequipped to take on. Many of the organizations this week were focused on young adults, or had a program specifically tailored to this age group, and I think it is a model that our own country could definitely benefit from. This age group is a vulnerable population, as this is when mental health issues are initially brought out. I believe we should be making it more of a priority to reduce stigma and support this population’s needs, as it would significantly increase the health of our greater society.

(By Rachel Neff)
Finding a good source of funding for any organization can be challenge. In the United States, funding is scarce for almost all human resource branches, whether it be social work, public health, mental health, etc. Altough, it seems like Australia’s government also provides little funding to it’s services. From most of the agencies that our class has visited, that funding is mostly private. However, Australians put a lot of care into the mental health and wellbeing of their young people, perhaps more so than Americans. As social workers, we are taught to fix the problem at the source. Imagine walking through the woods and seeing a river with someone yelling for help. You help them out and another person floats down, and another person after that. Why are all these people floating down this river? You run back to the top and see people leaning on this rail and the rail is broken, which causes people to fall into the river, thus needing help. You fix the rail, which fixes the entire problem. Why not fix the problem “upstream,” rather than, “downstream.” When Instead of continually fixing something at a micro level and it breaking repeatively, we should strive to fix it at a macro level and fix the source of the problem. It is frustrating when there are no resources for the problem to even be fixed.

Funding is important!! How do you buy a house with no money? How do you start a business with no training? How do you drive with no lessons? The basic foundation is missing and that is detrimental to the system, delivery, and logistics.

(By Vy Do)

This past weekend, the group took a two-day trip with Outback Katie along The Great Ocean Road. We traveled many miles, stopping at look-out points to admire the view, exploring the rain forests, interacting with the animals, and relaxing on the beach. The experience was absolutely amazing and far surpassed any expectations Elena and I previously had.

While on this incredible journey, Katie taught us many things about the land, the people, and the culture along the road. Having grown up in the area, she was full of knowledge and was excited to share it with us. We learned this road, that winds a path through beautiful landscapes for miles along the coast and through the Australian bush, was built by soldiers who returned from World War I. While this was an incredibly difficult task (much of the work involved digging through the cliffs by hand with nothing but an ax), the idea was that working on the road would give them a newfound purpose now that the war was over and help them heal from all the horrors they had recently seen and experienced. Katie put these challenging thoughts the soldiers were facing in perspective by expressing, “Why me? Why did I survive and not the other men? Why was I able to come home?” With this contemplation came a revelation that the soldiers channeled into creating The Great Ocean Road.

While I have no way of knowing if these soldiers did find peace as they worked, I would like to believe they did. After spending just two days in this environment, I feel refreshed, re-energized, and grateful to be alive. Gazing out onto the ocean and listening to the waves crash into the cliffs was very calming for me, and I believe it would have been for the returning soldiers as well. Breathing in the fresh air that one can only find in the countryside was also rejuvenating, and I hope that this, along with the incredible scenery and the satisfaction of completing a hard day’s work would have helped the soldiers move on with their lives after World War I.

Having contemplated all of this, it was really moving to be able to stop and visit the Memorial Arch dedicated to the soldiers that worked so tirelessly to build this road so that people for many generations would be able to experience the wonderful scenery and wildlife the southeastern coast of Australia has to offer.

By the end of the first day on The Great Ocean Road I felt empowered, and by the end of the second day I felt changed. Our sunrise meditation on the hills was a beautiful way to start the day. Relaxed and appreciative to be living in the moment, Katie challenged us by having us set our intentions for our lives, and more specifically the day. Room 602 (Laura and myself) ironically enough set similar intents for the day which was to appreciate what we have around us while in nature and on The Great Ocean Road and not focus on the negativity that life hands us. Easy to set but difficult to uphold. Breathing in deep, calm breathes and simply expressing to ourselves that our intent actually means something to us was enough to keep that goal alive throughout the day. Looking out the window and seeing the ocean follow us which ever bend and wind in the road we took was enough to assure us that everything would work out and be alright. No worries, ever.

Back home, I’ll always be known as the first to say that I’m a city girl. I grew up in Cleveland and go to school in Columbus. City to city. But I always seem to contradict myself when put in nature. The calm, quiet, serene atmosphere is enough to make a city girl never go back downtown and stay upstream permanently. That’s what The Great Ocean Road did. It captivates you. The waves don’t just crash into sand, but grabs you and takes you, never letting go and you’re trapped and entranced by the beauty of it all. How is it possible to leave when you’ve been hooked? It was difficult to say the least but it was impactful. Never before have I been so mesmerized by Mother Nature and all her mysteries. We appreciate our relationships, the people in our lives, the opportunities we are given on a daily basis but do we appreciate nature? Not only daily but at all? Katie told us a story about her Uncle and his construction business. He and his crew, locals from The Great Ocean Road, would build homes for others. Her uncle would always add two weeks to the project timeline, whether the house needed it or not. Reason being? He would let his crew go to the beach and surf when there would be a beautiful, worthy wave to catch. He not only appreciated the locals’ lifestyle, but the Southern Ocean in all its glory for he would do the same thing to surf a good wave. His appreciation for nature impacted his crew in a positive way, making them work harder for a respectable man, causing his business to thrive and ultimately make him a happy man. Who knew narly waves could do such great things to your life.

Entering the city again was saddening. Hearing the traffic, not being able to see the stars, no ocean in sight, it made for a melancholy evening. But I will now never go a day without appreciating what I know is out there. I don’t have to see it and I don’t have to be near it to know that nature and all our great intentions for life are bigger than who we are.

Week 2 Wrap Up

After wrapping up week one in the rainy city, we got lucky with a few days of sunshine to round the corner into week two. We spent that time soaking up the sun in the great outdoors of Victoria. First, we explored the riverbeds and grassy fields of Darebin Park, a spiritual healing nature reserve. Next stop was St. Kilda Beach, home of a Luna Park and gorgeous sunsets on St. Kilda Pier. Then finally, we wrapped it all up with our nature tour with guide Peter, aka Outback Billy. We marched all around Phillip’s Island doing everything from taking selfies with kangaroos and wallabies to watching the fairy penguins waddle across the beach to return to their burrows. However, all good weather must come to an end. When we returned to the city for our next agency visits, so did the rain…

Our next set of visits started with the Lighthouse Foundation on May 20th . This organization is dedicated to ending youth homelessness. The dedicated staff at this agency help young people who need a home and a purpose to find their place in the community. By using a therapeutic family model and trained caregivers, Lighthouse Foundation helps young people break the cycle of homelessness with an 88% success rate.

On May 21st we visited the Young and Well Center. This research institution partners with 75+ other organizations to promote the health and wellbeing of young people by creating easily accessible tools, apps, and other programs on the internet. They also seek to promote children’s rights online in this digital age. The goal of these online programs is to try to reach the 70% of young people who may be in need of help, but are not actively seeking it for various reasons. They are early intervention programs created to intervene before a young person reaches a crisis point. What is unique about this organization is that they highly value youth participation in the designing of these programs. Staff members see the young people as actual partners in this process. The adolescents that are accepted through the application process become part of what this agency calls the “Youth Brain Trust”. Youth members can participate on this panel for 1 year. Part of the goal here is to build group cohesion and a culture of peer support through this active participation in planning.

Cultural Observations 

Now that we have had two weeks to soak in the city Melbourne, we have noticed many more things about the culture here. Similar to what we discovered in Where Are The Roo’s? – Week 1 Observations, the stereotypes of Australia are an inaccurate depiction of the buzzing urban areas, like Melbourne. Unlike the pictures we had painted in our heads of tan people, deserts, jeeps and kangaroos, Australia’s cities are not so different from those of the United States and other cities around the world.

-Melbourne’s City Layout

One of Melbourne’s many distinguished traits is the urban art. Graffiti is all over the city. Though there are gang names here and there, for the most part the city is covered in art. You can find one of the most well-known, and legal, graffiti spaces on Hosier Lane in down town Melbourne. Providing a space for graffiti artists to outlet and recycle their work is a tactic many cities use to decrease vandalization elsewhere. This concept is not uncommon to the United States. Austin, Texas practices this same method in their space called Baylor Street Art. Venice Beach in California also has a space for legal graffiti.

From what we have seen, Victoria also has very similar national parks, comparable to those in the US. However, this is only one small portion of Australia. There is still this whole other side of the country that is uninhabited by humans and covered with some of the deadliest creatures in the world. There are small towns where it rains spiders and coasts with paralyzing jellyfish. So yes, in the city of Melbourne where we are doing our studies, there are some physical traits that is similar to the U.S. But in reality, the physical traits of this land are so diverse and so large, its like comparing apples and crocodiles.

-Australia’s People

When we first arrived in Melbourne, we spent some time learning about the first inhabitants of Australia – the Aboriginals. Over the past couple of weeks, we have observed that Melbourne is now home to people from all over the world. On our trip with Outback Billy we learned more facts about the increasing diversity in Australia. It is estimated that over 1 in 4 of Australia’s 24 million people were born overseas. In the last six years, the Chinese population has increased by 60%, while the Indian population has increased 100%! Australia is also the third largest country for the number of people who speak Greek (including Greece).

Similar to the U.S., many immigrants come into Australia and end up living and working in rural areas on the farms surrounding the larger cities. For example, there are many Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese people working the farms on the outskirts of Melbourne. Within Melbourne, many different countries and cultures are represented. We have walked through Chinatown, Little Italy, and Little Vietnam. We have also seen many Greek and Indian restaurants throughout the city. Outback Billy gave us some facts on recent trends in regards to religion in Australia as well. About 50% of Australians identify as Christian, however less than 5% go to church more than twice a year. The average church population is over 60. Outback Billy pointed out a few churches for sale along our drive out in the more rural parts outside of Melbourne. We even saw a church that had been converted into a Mexican restaurant. This says a lot about how Australia’s religious trends have changed, and continue to change, over recent years.

-Chloe and Kathryn