Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Sunshine Special Developmental School

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (14:20): It was great to be down two weeks ago at Sunshine Special Developmental School for the opening of their new mini Woolies store. Working in partnership with Woolworths, the school has been able to set up a simulation of an actual Woolies grocery store, complete with shopping baskets, grocery shelves, ticketing, signage and even uniforms, for students to immerse themselves in. This helps create a learning environment where these students can not only learn to do things like scan grocery items and look at shopping lists but also, really importantly, greet customers, communicate and learn to handle money. For these children to go on to education and further employment will be extremely challenging. What the mini Woolies program does for these kids, including students like Rita, who I was fortunate enough to meet, is link them with work experience at a nearby Woolworths store, in this case in Sunshine, where they are paired up with a mentor to teach them workplace skills that will potentially help them to gain future employment or work experience. It was clear from the parents’ reaction in the room that this is a really important program because this program is giving kids with disability the opportunity to develop skills that they can apply in a workplace environment, not to mention in their everyday lives, because no matter who you are, every single one of us deserves the chance to thrive through the actual dignity that comes through work and work experience.