Cameron Tero

What Matters Most is a classroom resource about one of the major challenges facing the global community. Well over a billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day; nearly two billion people still live in slums; a child still dies of hunger-related causes every six seconds. Nevertheless, there is also cause for hope – over the last 20 years the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen in every global region, and the number of children dying globally from poverty-related causes has reduced by more than a third.1

All’s Well? is a resource book for upper primary teachers — packed with lesson ideas and resources to bring the world of water to the classroom. All’s Well? helps students become aware of the tough challenges the human community faces regarding water, as well as looking at possibilities for hope and change. This book gives teachers the tools to bring rich global learning experiences to the classroom — increasing knowledge, fostering new skills, questioning values, and encouraging realistic action for positive global citizenship.

This paper explores the concept of intergenerational exchange as a vehicle for community building in Australia. Drawing on document analysis, focus groups, and in-depth study of four intergenerational programs, the research examines the benefits and constraints of intergenerational exchange and the relationship between intergenerational programs and their potential to foster resilience, enhance social connection, and build individual and community capacity. Findings reveal that in intended and unanticipated ways, young and older Australians benefit from intergenerational exchange. The multidimensional nature of intergenerational exchange promotes broad social networks and a means for developing substantive relationships between the young and other community members.

This guide book was put together over 2006 and 2007 using some of the latest research about what makes mentoring programs work well. It is detailed and easy to read and understand, and gives practical ideas about planning a program, and training mentors as well as finding useful resources to make programs run well. It comes with a handy CD that contains material useful for getting a program off the ground. The authors of the book have worked as both researchers and practitioners and brought a wide range of mentoring experience to the task.

Initiatives designed to support young people’s engagement, participation and civic involvement with community have grown in popularity in Australia over the past decade. This is coincident with an increased emphasis on communitarian aspirations such as building community, promoting civics and encouraging social capital (Bessant, 1997; Botsman & Latham, 2001; Brennan, 1998; Harris, 1999). In this new policy environment, young people’s social problems, issues and needs are largely seen as a reflection of their declining levels of inclusion in civic life, a loss in community, a failure on the part of local associations to encourage social cohesion at the local level and a growing distance between the generations. According to those advancing this style of social policy, something has gone awfully wrong with the social fabric, community participation is dropping and different generations are becoming cut off from each other. The answer is often seen to be in interventions that develop social capital, build community capacity, encourage partnerships, support community enterprise, and strengthen democratic and civic participation. Precisely what this means, or how it might be achieved in youth practice settings, is not clear. Intergenerational practice has emerged as one general approach that may help put substance to aspirations for bringing young people into closer contact with others in their community. Although as yet not a significant part of the Australian policy landscape, the field of intergenerational practice has gained considerable support in the United States and is growing rapidly in Europe.

This project is a national evaluation of the Indigenous Mentoring Pilots Program. The project has a number of facets, including the development of an Evaluation Kit to assist individual projects in the evaluation of the program at specific sites, assessment of the impact of the program as a whole, examination of individual projects, and preparation of recommendations of models for mentoring indigenous students.

This project is a national evaluation of the Indigenous Mentoring Pilots Program. The project has a number of facets, including the development of an Evaluation Kit to assist individual projects in the evaluation of the program at specific sites, assessment of the impact of the program as a whole, examination of individual projects, and preparation of recommendations of models for mentoring indigenous students.