Tag / SDGs

by Action4Agriculture

The Power of Art to Heal

This post shines a spotlight on SDG 3 and how The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas can improve the health of our students and our selves

The United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) underpin our Action4Agriculture (A4A) school programs and our values. In schools students are tasked with identifying a goal they want to achieve

 

The problem they have to solve or the barrier they need to overcome to achieve their goal

We then invite them to design and deliver a community behavior change program to make it happen

 

In past years popular SDGs chosen by schools have been:

  • SDG 2 – Zero Hunger
  • SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 13 – Climate Action
  • SDG 14 – Life Below Water
  • SDG 15 – Life on Land

In 2021 The Henry Lawson High School in Grenfell, NSW, became the first school to incorporate SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being, as their theme to guide their Archibull Prize entry. Teacher Jillian Reidy explains their progress to date:

“Our vision for our 2021 Archie was to focus on well-being and use the cow to be a public artwork to express well-being words provided by the community and well-being initiatives within the school. Well-being initiatives include the design of a well-being haven for students, and a colour run that was designed but which we have not been able to run due to COVID restrictions. We have also initiated another public art project working with the council which will explore well-being. Funding has been applied for and we are hoping to have it completed mid 2022.”

Watch Jillian talk about how the school was inspired to go on their journey here

Living with a pandemic has forced us all to re-evaluate our own health and well-being and to develop strategies to increase resilience. In the Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) Annual Statistical Report 2018 resilience in adolescents was found to be higher when they had a strong sense of belonging at school and had friends they could trust and communicate with about problems. The Henry Lawson High School is proactive on this strengthening of resilience.

Similarly, in primary schools it has been important to build resilience, especially in school communities where the pandemic came hot on the heels of devastating bushfires in 2019-2020. To support these schools St Vincent de Paul’s (Vinnies)  Bushfire Recovery and Community Development Program provided funding to deliver Kreative Koalas into five schools.

The Vinnies Program has three major areas of focus – future preparedness and building resilience, community cohesion, and environmental regeneration and sustainability. “Vinnies views Kreative Koalas as aligning with all three, but particularly the resilience building and environmental sustainability,” John Fenech, the manager of Community Development Bushfire Recovery at St Vincent de Paul Society of NSW says.

The Australian Government recently created a Student Wellbeing Hub, which incorporates Beyond Blue’s report on resilience in children aged 0-12. This resource is available to teachers who can use further resources within Kreative Koalas to create targeted resilience interventions for their students in need.

When we take time to reflect we realise SDG 3 affects not only our students and teachers but all of us. Our good health and well-being underpins all we do in our lives, just as the SDG underpins the work of Action4Agriculture.

Read how more of our Archibull Prize schools are building resilience here

Apply to participate in The Archibull Prize 2022 here 

Apply to participate in Kreative Koalas 2022 here 

#sustainability #environmental #resilience #pandemic #bushfirerecovery

 

by Action4Agriculture

Changing the world might be easier than you think. The secrets to success

 

At Action4Agriculture ( formerly Picture you in Agriculture ) we see our programs as vehicles to provide opportunities for people and organisations to come together to give young people agency and voice and empower them to be changemakers.

Our role models are emerging leaders in the agriculture sector. We identify, train and develop them to be confident communicators and trusted voices.  We provide them with opportunities to multiply their impact by working with young people in schools and the community. We call them Young Farming Champions. They represent the diversity of people who work in the agriculture sector.

Their hands on journey begins by facilitating our school programs The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas 

Our schools and our Young Farming Champions have taken on the big hairy goals – the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or the SDGs for short

We are working with our schools to tackle the SDG targets Australia most needs to meet

 

We have all heard people say if changing the world was easy we would all be doing it. What we have found it is easy if WE believe it is and WE surround ourselves with enough people who share the vision and are committed to taking action and DO.

There is a formula.

  • Identify the outcome you want to achieve
  • Identify what success looks like
  • Start with a big idea – keep it as simple as possible
  • Identify the actors
  • Identify the actions the actors need to take
  • Identify the expertise you need to outsource
  • Identify the GO TO Person to access the experts
  • Design and Deliver your ACTION PLAN
  • Monitor, Evaluate, Report and Inform

We suggest you start with a basic understanding of psychology.

What makes people tick

 

and the theory of change 

Australia’s Guru of Changeology, Les Robinson, keeps it simple for us

You need to be prepared to experiment, collect data, report on that data and share it with others

Most importantly you need people who genuinely care and understand that it takes a village.

We are identifying people who really care and have the expertise to support our schools and Young Farming Champions.

We are big fans of the Collective Action for Collective Impact model

In 2020 we paired with OzHarvest FEAST to tackle Zero Hunger, Responsible Production and Consumption and Climate Change.

We partnered with Corteva Agriscience to build a library of resources for teachers and students

We partnered with Australian Wool Innovation. NSW Department of Primary Industries, Local Land Services and Corteva Agriscience to identify, train and develop young agriculturalists

We partnered with  Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Education, Changeologist Les Robinson, Science Communicator Jenni Metcalfe, 21st Century Learning Expert Josh Farr and John Holloway and the Murray Darling Basin Authority Education team to  deliver professional development workshops for teachers and students. These workshops were funded by NSW Local Land Services and NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment

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We partnered with the Geography Teachers Association of NSW and ACT to deliver professional development workshops to teachers

Over the next week we are very excited to share with you a series of blogs that showcase the changemakers we have worked with in our Kreative Koalas schools. All of the students and teachers we work with are committed to leaving a legacy  we can all be proud of.

We can all be changemakers, we just need to care enough and surround ourselves with people who care as much as we do.

 

Sneak Peek you can check out the #KreativeKoalaKids artworks here

#ConnectCollaborateCommunicate #EngageEmpower #CollectiveAction #CollectiveImpact