An update on our Lift the Lid project, supporting the Counselling support available at local colleges around the Wellington region.
David Shackleton reports.
On Tuesday the 29th of November, The Lifting the Lid (LTL) team of Jane, Richard, David, and Dawn met with representatives from Onslow, Rongatai and Wellington East Girls College (St Mary’s couldn’t make it) and four of the supporting Rotary Clubs from Wellington (Karori, Wellington South, Mt Victoria and Wellington North). The aim of the meeting was to bring all the participants up to date on our progress, listen to feedback from the schools and formulate the plan for 2023.
Richard outlined the LTL programme has supported two interventions with three payments being made to counsellors. The distributions were below expectations and the colleges indicated they needed further clarification as to the criteria. We are to meet before year end to further define and refine the criteria for the colleges and simplify access to the funds.
While presently the criteria focus on students with suicidal ideation and self-harm, the idea is to broaden the scope to include substance abuse, anger management and include those students deemed “at risk”.
The feedback from the schools is that the families involved are truly grateful for the support Rotary provides, further reinforcing the need to grow the programme.
It was decided to expand the programme in 2023 to involve more Wellington colleges and at some stage perhaps intermediate schools.
All in all, it was a most successful meeting, The relationship between Rotary and the colleges was strengthened and the foundations set to expand the programme for 2023.