Friendship has definitely been the key theme for the St. Peter Chanel Vinnies for 2018 as they have worked on reaching out to others in their school community and beyond. In Term One they had the opportunity of having Chelsea Routhan from Big Brothers Big Sisters come to speak to them about the role of this mentoring organisation in the community and were able to present to Chelsea a box of resources that the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentors can use in the schools that they visit. The box included games put together by the St. Peter Chanel and St. Paul’s Vinnies.

They also had Heather Walker from the Inclusive Sports Trust come to speak to them about the importance of making all people feel included. 

The Vinnies spent time thinking about the essential factors in building friendships and reaching out to others and came up with a list of virtues that are useful to put into practice when doing this such as helpfulness, flexibility, good listening, trustworthiness and reliability. 

The Vinnies are now putting their learning into practice through becoming mentors for the younger students in their school spending time with them and teaching them useful skills while developing their own skills in working with others.