The program, being run at Berri Regional Secondary College, is giving community organisations additional support and giving the students life skills while improving their mental health.

The school’s Assistant Principal of Wellbeing and Engagement, Donna Safralidis, said volunteering gave the students valuable learning opportunities outside of traditional school settings.

“Students are experiencing authentic learning outside of the four walls of a classroom,” Mrs Safralidis said.

“They are connecting with groups of people they might not have otherwise, and they’re seeing value in themselves and in others.”

The initiative started as a way to improve sustainable mental health for the school and wider regional community.

Volunteering SA&NT connected the school to volunteer organisations in the Riverland, and there are now more than 400 young people from the school involved with about 30 organisations.

Volunteering activities link back to the school curriculum, including year 11 and 12 students earning SACE credits.

Mrs Safralidis said feedback from the community organisations had been overwhelmingly positive.

“Every single organisation has been supportive of having young people at their site,” she said.

“Many also said they had wanted to engage with young people but didn’t know how to connect. This program has broken down barriers.

“School attendance improves on volunteer days. Kids want to come to school to be out and about in their community.”

The benefits are felt by the students as well.

Year 12 student Cameron said volunteering made him feel “great”.

“When we volunteer, we make a difference within our community,” Cameron, pictured here volunteering at the local primary school, said.

“Seeing the reactions of the people we’re helping is so satisfying and rewarding.

“Student volunteers are willing to get their hands dirty and are great talkers.”

Cameron said one of his volunteering highlights was visiting retirement village Berri Cottage Homes during Christmas time.

“We sang carols, and seeing all the residents having a talk with the young people was really rewarding,” he said.

Students have been involved in activities ranging from filling sandbags during the Riverland floods, when 20 students filled 560 sandbags in a day, to helping out in aged care facilities.

Volunteering has become an important part of school life, with a community connector now employed, whose role is to bring volunteer organisations to the school and to link the school’s young people to their community.

Mrs Safralidis said the program was still in its early days, but the school hoped to make volunteering “part of everything we do”.

It’s currently National Volunteer Week, Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering, held between 15 and 21 May 2023.

Mrs Safralidis and the school’s community connector, Emma Vallelonga, spoke on a panel at the state Volunteering SA&NT conference during National Volunteer Week where they discussed the community and social impacts of volunteering.

Berri Regional Secondary College year 12 student Cohen Nutske was recognised as a finalist for the South Australian Young Volunteer Award at 2023 South Australian Volunteer Awards on Monday 15 May, for his efforts as a volunteer both for the school and wider Riverland community.