Insites
Charities
The College works with a number of charity organisations in the local community.
Action Programs
In the Senior School, each House designs an action program to assist a different area of community need. The boys are confronted with the difficult situations that others in their community face daily. They are encouraged to reflect on their own position and are left with a greater sense of empathy and compassion for others in their community.
The College works with four principle charity organisations, CanTeen, TEAR Australia, The Fred Hollows Foundation and the Salvation Army OASIS Youth Support Network.
Oasis Youth Support Network
The Oasis Youth Support Network is The Salvation Army’s major response to youth homelessness in Australia. The organisation provides a place of safety and care where, through compassion and skillful intervention, troubled young people find refuge and hope to achieve dreams and potential.
Located in Surry Hills, Oasis provides over 25 cutting edge programs that offer critical points of intervention and support for homeless and disadvantaged young people between 16 and 24 years of age.
These holistic and life changing support services include; case management, counselling, crisis and transitional accommodation, legal support, accredited workplace training, education and vocational opportunities, specialist intervention services and multimedia training. On any given night, Oasis also helps to accommodate and feed more than 100 homeless young people.
To show your support for Oasis, you can make a donation here.
Oasis support at Newington
Both Kelynack and Johnstone Houses support the Oasis Youth Support Network and are involved in different initiatives to help raise awareness and much needed funds for their programs. Annual activities include the Red Shield Appeal, Year 11 boys visiting the Crisis Centre in Surry Hills, Oasis T-Shirt design competition and helping pack goodie bags for Carols by Candlelight, Oasis’ greatest single fundraising event.
Boys have also been involved in the Couch Surfing project, a fundraising and awareness campaign which aims to combat youth homelessness through raising awareness of youth couch surfing. In previous years students in Years 10 and 11 have run the project at Newington and have visited the Couch Surfing “cube” located at Circular Quay.
Boys in both Kelynack and Johnstone Houses have been involved in the annual ‘Sleep Rough’ whereby they spend a night sleeping outside to raise funds and a better understanding of the plight of Australia’s homeless youth.
Senior students have also been involved in a Getting Skilled for Work Program whereby the College hosts young people who are in the process of entering the workforce. Senior students have the opportunity to interact with these young people and gain a deeper understanding of their circumstances and the issues that some young people face in their lives.
Fred Hollows Foundation
Fred Hollows (1929–1993) was an Australian philanthropist and ophthalmologist who became known for restoring sight to thousands of people in developing countries and his passionate fight to improve the health of Indigenous Australians living in remote communities.
The aim of the Foundation is to carry on the Fred Hollows legacy of delivering sight-saving care to those most in need. Fred Hollows envisions a world where no-one is needlessly blind. The foundation does incredible work in remote areas where people do not have access to basic cataract removal and other eye surgeries.
Metcalfe House supports The Fred Hollows Foundation.
The senior boys organise fundraising activities annually with recent highlights including mufti days, a photography competition, an indoor football competition and a House “Cataract Dodgeball Tournament”. House chapel services also contribute to the funds raised for the foundation.
Exodus Foundation
The Exodus Foundation, based from the Ashfield Uniting Church Parish Mission provides welfare, healthcare and educational services to those who need it most in our local community.
The Foundation was started over 25 years ago when Rev Bill Crews saw the need to assist homeless and abandoned youth. Now many years later, the Foundation has grown to include the Loaves and Fishes Free Restaurant created to help feed those in need in the Inner West.
Click here for more information or to support the Exodus Foundation’s work.
As part of the Service Learning program at Newington all boys in Year 11 have the opportunity to contribute to the Exodus Foundation in a practical way, by volunteering at the Loaves and Fishes Restaurant. As part of a roster system based on House, the boys work with other volunteers to help prepare and serve guests during the breakfast service.
Dessert Van
Newington is also responsible for the dessert van, which now runs every Friday night at the Loaves and Fishes Restaurant.
Boys in Year 7 also contribute to the Loaves and Fishes initiative through the school vegetable garden. They take on the responsibility of planting, tending and harvesting the vegetables, which are then donated to the restaurant and contribute to the daily meals that are provided to those in need.
Community Service Events
Throughout the year, all Year Groups are also invited to participate in a variety of charitable fundraisers and events.