At the start of December 2022, the "Look At Me Now Leadership" programme celebrated eight students graduating with a special morning tea ceremony at Red Hill Primary School. The successful graduates were presented with certificates and shared their experiences in front of proud family/whanau and teachers.

 John, SWiS worker with the 2022 graduates of "Look At Me Know Leadership" programme.

 "Look At Me Know Leadership" is a youth leadership programme offered by our Social Workers in Schools (SWiS) programme (Papakura Family Service Centre) for more than 10 years.

The 15-week programme has been designed to run during school hours for selected Year 5 and Year 6 students. The aim of programme is to identify students' leadership potential and build on their resilience. Upon completion of the programme, students are expected to positively influence their peers in the school and neighbourhood.

"Look at Me Now Leadership" programme at Camp Adair

This year, students learnt about responsibility, conflict resolution, animal and children's rights, recycling, anti-tagging and vandalism through various modules. The programme also involves trips that require participants to be taken off the school grounds - Education Outside The Classroom (EOTC) and these activities allow students to develop confidence, team building, and leadership skills. Trips this year included team-building activities at Camp Adair, a day at Totara Park and water safety at Massey Park pools.

In her speech, graduate Selau said, "The programme was about integrity, leadership, our community, respect, responsibility, recycling, graffiti art and tagging. The module I enjoyed most and would like to talk about is leadership. Being a leader is being good and a good listener. A leader is responsible, shows respect for other people and looks after the little kids. A leader is like a teacher and a good leader is kind, shows respect, works with the team and is a good role model. That is what I want to be."

Selau, a 2022 "Look At Me Now" graduate

 

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At Great Potentials Foundation, Social Workers in Schools (SWiS) programme is one of the services offered by Family Service Centres. We currently have SWiS workers in Cosgrove Primary, Kelvin Road Primary, Edmund Hillary Primary, Red Hill Primary, Kauri Flats School, Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School and Papakura Intermediate.