National Youth Week, 8-17 April 2016, is about celebrating Australia's youth. This year's theme is 'Be the Future', and I can't quite believe how fitting that is; it is the very fibre of what Light Reading House is all about! LRH hopes to instil in its young writers that they have what it takes... for whatever they want their futures to be!
We have had some great progress and some new interest in our organisation, so it seems fitting to celebrate Australia's youth, and revisiting who we are and what we do, while we're at it!
Light Reading House recognises the worth of young people's ideas and ability to contribute to their society. In the Outer South East suburbs of Melbourne where socioeconomic factors can hold kids back up to 3 years in their schooling, we strongly believe that our young people need to see that they are valued and their voices have worth regardless of their postcode. The idea of LRH is that through learning and owning their own stories, young people develop skills and build confidence, allowing them to see their own worth and therefore choose to contribute to their worlds in an active way.
We were first inspired by Dave Eggers' 2008 TED Talk , Once Upon A School, and his work in creating 826 Valencia in San Francisco. Since then we have become a registered charity and are building a community of young writers who have fun developing their critical and creative writing skills that will hold them in good stead for their futures.
Lighthouse Workshops launched this year, and will continue throughout each school holiday period. Young people aged from 7-15 will be catered for in fun, low-key workshops targeting varied aspects of creative writing. Best of all, these workshops are free - giving opportunities to those in low socioeconomic areas that could otherwise not be accessed. Patterson River Secondary College have kindly allowed the use of their College library - a wonderful facility allowing a number of workshops to run at one time. Students from any school, primary or secondary, will be invited to this location to take part in fun and light-hearted story telling games, writing practise and author visits. Once workshops are established we hope to move towards visiting schools to run incursions, the fees from which will go towards continuing to sustain the free workshops for years to come.
Carlisle Community Grants have shortlisted us for their current cycle! This means that we have applied and they have identified us as an organisation worthy of supporting - now, all we have to do is get the most votes of support from the community in order to win! If we are successful the funds will go towards marketing Lighthouse Workshops as well as updating workshop equipment. We will also use a large portion of the funds to move towards acquiring a writing studio in which to run our events!
Click the orange button to show your support, and share with whoever you think might like to be a part of something great! Help us celebrate Australia's youth - not just this week, but all year long!
We have had some great progress and some new interest in our organisation, so it seems fitting to celebrate Australia's youth, and revisiting who we are and what we do, while we're at it!
Light Reading House recognises the worth of young people's ideas and ability to contribute to their society. In the Outer South East suburbs of Melbourne where socioeconomic factors can hold kids back up to 3 years in their schooling, we strongly believe that our young people need to see that they are valued and their voices have worth regardless of their postcode. The idea of LRH is that through learning and owning their own stories, young people develop skills and build confidence, allowing them to see their own worth and therefore choose to contribute to their worlds in an active way.
We were first inspired by Dave Eggers' 2008 TED Talk , Once Upon A School, and his work in creating 826 Valencia in San Francisco. Since then we have become a registered charity and are building a community of young writers who have fun developing their critical and creative writing skills that will hold them in good stead for their futures.
Lighthouse Workshops launched this year, and will continue throughout each school holiday period. Young people aged from 7-15 will be catered for in fun, low-key workshops targeting varied aspects of creative writing. Best of all, these workshops are free - giving opportunities to those in low socioeconomic areas that could otherwise not be accessed. Patterson River Secondary College have kindly allowed the use of their College library - a wonderful facility allowing a number of workshops to run at one time. Students from any school, primary or secondary, will be invited to this location to take part in fun and light-hearted story telling games, writing practise and author visits. Once workshops are established we hope to move towards visiting schools to run incursions, the fees from which will go towards continuing to sustain the free workshops for years to come.
Carlisle Community Grants have shortlisted us for their current cycle! This means that we have applied and they have identified us as an organisation worthy of supporting - now, all we have to do is get the most votes of support from the community in order to win! If we are successful the funds will go towards marketing Lighthouse Workshops as well as updating workshop equipment. We will also use a large portion of the funds to move towards acquiring a writing studio in which to run our events!
Click the orange button to show your support, and share with whoever you think might like to be a part of something great! Help us celebrate Australia's youth - not just this week, but all year long!