Jubilee Christian Fellowship Frankston

City Life School program

City Life is a ground level organisation, helping feed and connect over 100 people a day. One of the significant areas of growth is our Schools Program which facilitates local schools groups to visit and participate in a ‘hands on’ experience. Teachers have reported back to us the amazing impact that spending a day here with us has made on their students and we believe it is a positive influence on young people as they mature into adults.

One of our delights is that we are able to facilitate some of the students from the Nepean Special School on a fortnightly basis.

These students come and help us help others. We have been told that we are the only welfare organisation who has been able to accommodate these student and it is truly inspirational to see severely disadvantaged young people who now feel they can contribute to the needs of others.

In 2009 we developed a partnership with the South Eastern Region VCAL's to train them in Food Handling and give them an opportunity to work at CIty Life. These students produce meals in our kitchen for our clients giving them the opportunity to train in a real kitchen, for real clients in a supervised and professional manner. This is a win win partnership as the students get training and real experience and our clients get a great meal!

“City Life is a charity organisation that aims to give disadvantaged people at least one proper, healthy meal per week. ..During the day we also had an opportunity to cook...The plan is for our class to go back next term and actually cook all of the food for the day and serve it out to them all. The certificate was fun to learn and it is a very useful thing to know about safe food handling seeing that we handle food everyday in our lives...”

“...it felt pretty good thinking that we have done something to help out in the community. The day was pretty good and I would be happy to go back again...”

“My students were really empowered and willing to step out of their comfort zone. Several of them volunteered on their own initiative to return to City Life and work as volunteers in their own time.”

“Students were initially surprised and even shocked, but the experience awoke in them a sense of giving back to the community and contributing to the lives of others. It broke down stereotypes”

“The visit to City Life extended students’ ability to communicate with people they don’t know. They learnt the importance of volunteering.”

“The students are extremely creative and I have been amazed at their cooking ability and ingenuity. As a charity we often have an odd assortment of donated food items which we have to use, the students came up with interesting, creative, delicious meals with only little direction from me.” Trainer Sue Whitby

“Seeing the students work together is wonderful. Often I notice more confident students getting alongside a less confident student and encouraging them to participate. Working side by side to produce a meal for others breaks down a social barrier that cannot be manufactured in a classroom” Supervisor Janet Reid