On Monday the 24th of July 2006, we went back to university after a nice holiday to embark on our first social work placement experience. I learnt that I was going to be on placement with a friend of mien, Grace, and in our tutorial that day we decided that we would come up with an action together, to be completed on our sixty-day placement journey.
So on our first day at the Inspire Foundation, we decided that we wanted to do a fundraiser, but now the question was- what should we raise funds for? So we got onto Google and kept typing in random words trying to spark something upstairs. And then it came to us.
The Lebanon Crisis. This took place a couple of weeks before placement so we thought that it was an issue that the world was hearing about and because it is such a sensitive issue, we just wanted to help.
The next step we took was finding out what organisation we could raise the money for to help those displaced in Lebanon, and Australia for the UNHCR seemed the more appropriate. We found it pretty disconcerting that, according to their website, $114 is enough for a tent to shelter a family of five- considering that tents don’t cost that much in some camping shops, we thought that obviously any funds would be appreciated!
So we each decided to come up with an action plan, which ran under the headings what, why, how and we had a timeline and a target too. I also completed a SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) for both the project and myself. I think the threats and weaknesses were the most important to overcome. For the project, they were not being able raise as much money as desired (around $1000 originally) and the threats were permits, logistics of where to sell tickets and that perhaps there was a rule that we need to find a public place to draw raffle in.
My main personal weakness is that I get nervous on the phone talking to people I do not know and find it difficult to articulate my ideas concisely. However, these weaknesses and threats were about to be challenged and overcome!
We met up with Elly Barrett, the face-to-face fundraiser co-ordinator for Australia for the UNHCR, and gave her a copy of our action plan and spoke through our goals and expectations. She also informed us about some of the rules with raffles, like needing to draw it in a public place and needing a certificate to fundraise which she would authorise.
After this successful meeting, Grace and I decided to think about prize options, and emailed lots of restaurants to try and get donations and Grace used her connections to get signed South Sydney Rabbitohs Jersey (which both our fathers donated) and memorabilia signed! So in the end, our prizes included those fantastic things, a dinner for two at Bistro Moncur in Woollahra, a dinner for four at the Glasshouse Hotel in Maroubra, a manicure and two beauty packs.
Grace and I then decided to sell the tickets in our office, to our family and friends and also for two nights at the pub that Grace works at in Maroubra on trivia night as a good crowd of people were sure to show up!
In the end we raised $700 (and five cents haha) and we were very pleased with our efforts considering all the work was done by the two of us and that all the prizes were donated! We felt as though we had completed our action successfully and it certainly was a learning curve.
I have never seen myself as an “active” person in regards to social issues and so was very surprised and proud of myself for doing such a thing. None of this could have been possible without the help of Grace, I’m so lucky that we decided to group together and that we managed to fulfil our vision. She was a great partner-in-crime and we had lots of laughs along the way.
Photographer : Rhian Bosco
