Seeds of Justice

 

Mount Lilydale Mercy College has been involved in the Mercy Seeds of Justice program for a number of years, offering students the opportunity to enrich their passion for social justice and meet like-minded students from other schools.  Seeds of Justice is a Mercy Schools Project, which involves staff and students in deepening their awareness of justice in our times. The aims of the Seeds of Justice are:

• to raise awareness in students, staff, schools and communities of social justice issues of the day and implications of the Gospel;

• to form school participants in the Mercy story and charism;

• to acknowledge and celebrate social justice dreams and initiatives existing in our Mercy schools and to give them added impetus, theological background and reflective depth;

• to make valuable new links between Mercy schools' staff, students and Mercy organisations.

St Vinnie's

 

During May last year, we celebrated the work of the St Vincent de Paul Society through ‘St Vinnies Week’. The aim of the week was to raise awareness of those in the community who are less fortunate as well as to raise funds for ‘Swags for Homeless’, a non-profit organisation offering support to homeless Australians. We would like to congratulate the College Conference on organising a very successful week. Enough money was raised to buy 30 swags which was donated to Ozanam House, a men’s refuge in North Melbourne run by the Society. The College Conference organised a number of fundraisers for the week, including a soup stall, a hot chocolate stall and a milkshake stall. The Year 7’s also ran a St Vinnies fundraiser, collecting coins to fill St Vinnies posters. In addition, a number of material items, such as tinned foods, toiletries and blankets, were donated and will be passed on to the St Vincent de Paul Society.

Soup Van, Ozanam House & Regina Coeli

Every second Friday, a group of year 12 students accompanied by two staff members head into the city to volunteer with the Matthew Talbot Soup Van, Fitzroy. The nights begin with half the students heading to Ozanam House, a male refuge accommodation, to assist with the serving of their dinner and the second half going to Regina Coeli. Regina Coeli is a Mercy program designed to offer homeless women a safe community. Here, the students chat with the women before all the staff and students head to soup van. The group is then divided again with some students going on the soup van truck, stopping at set destinations around the city and handing out food and drinks and offering a chat. The second half of the group goes door knocking to accommodation apartments where people are known to be struggling and again offering them food, drinks and a chat if they would like. The soup van program is a very rewarding experience for all staff and students who are involved and each year there is a waiting list of eager students who wish to volunteer. As well as the soup van on Fridays, Mount Lilydale Mercy College offers assistance on public holidays when no food is donated. On Good Friday last year, over 30 people, staff, students, families and friends, spent the day making up 70 loaves of sandwiches and buttering many hot cross buns to donate to the Matthew Talbot Soup Van.