School Volunteer Program ACT
The School Volunteer program ACT (SVPACT) is a volunteer organization incorporated in the ACT, Australia. Its volunteer members take up roles such as mentors, confidants and communicators to help young students in ACT schools. Volunteers visit schools weekly during each school term. They provide one-on-one time with students in academic related activities such as literacy and numeracy. Mentors also work along with students in other activities such as building with Meccano, woodcraft, Lego, craft, and cooking. Volunteers come from various backgrounds including former teachers, engineers, economists, tradesmen, homemakers, lawyers, bureaucrats and business managers. Overview . In 1997, a school volunteer program based on a Western Australian program was introduced in Canberra by the Canberra Weston Creek Rotary Club. Later on, the program was combined with two other existing volunteer programs, the School Volunteer trial program of Charnwood Primary School run at that time by St Barnabas Anglican Church, and the "STYLE" program run at that time by the Activities Probus Club of Weston Creek. In the end, the SVPACT which amalgamated all the programs, was launched in October 2005 at North Ainslie Primary School by the Governor General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery. It  works in partnership with the ACT Directorate of Education and Training. SVPACT's stated goals, are to connect volunteers who want to make a difference with young people in school who need extra help. It harnesses the wisdom and skills of older generations to enrich the learning experience of young people who are at risk of falling by the wayside in an often overburdened school system. SVPACT's mission is to prepare and connect inter-generational volunteers with children who have been identified by a school as likely to benefit from engagement with a mature role model. As of 2016 , up to 150 volunteers were providing mentoring services to 40 public schools in the ACT. Awards. SVPACT was named the Volunteer Team of the Year 2015, in the Education, Science, and Technology category.