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CommunityConnect

Education comes in many shapes and forms. While the school classroom is the obvious focal point of learning, there’s another world of ‘real life’ lessons that can complement a young person’s development and help them to be the best they can.

Community organisations play a vital - and often thankless - role in helping young people achieve. In this first edition of Community Connect, we recognise the efforts of three such groups: Landcare, Mobile Science Education and the Latrobe Regional Gallery.

GDF SUEZ Australian Energy is proud to have long-term relationships with these and many other organisations that continue to make a positive contribution to the local communities in which we all live.

Importantly, our educational partners have linked their programs to the requirements of school curricula. Collectively, we’re not just providing excursion opportunities, we’re working with teaching staff to help them gain what they are most in need of for their classes. The end result is activities that are good for students, teachers and the community.

Inside, you’ll find some examples of the education programs we’re supporting, including a story on one student who was able to experience not only his first ride on a bus, but his first-ever school excursion thanks to the Bass Coast Landcare Network’s Environmental Detectives program.

Real-life lessons help children grow

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Landcare’s Peter Baird celebrates another great day with a group of Environmental Detectives.

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Watching the detectives

Corey* had never been on a bus. He’d never even been on a school excursion.

But thanks to the Environmental Detectives program being run by Bass Coast Landcare, Corey was able to not only enjoy a couple of firsts, he learnt some valuable lessons about the environment along the way.

“His reaction was incredible,” says Lisa Wangman from Landcare. “We have been running Environmental Detectives sessions for almost two years and this was one of the most rewarding experiences I have been involved in.”

GDF SUEZ Australian Energy is Bass Coast Landcare’s longest corporate partner, a relationship that began in 1997 with the establishment of the Phillip Island Landcare Corridor.

The Environmental Detectives program uses Landcare staff and groups to mentor primary and secondary school children through outdoor, hands-on environmental fieldwork. The focus on awareness raising and understanding of environmental processes ignites student interest and develops a sense of ownership of their local and global environment.

Here’s what some of the students are saying:

“My favorite part of today was when I was fishing the bugs out of the water with my squeezy thing.”

“When the trees (I planted) grow they will take all of the salt out of the water and the ground.”

Program highlights:

• 1610 children from 14 schools experienced the Environmental Detectives program in 2014.

• Participation by Latrobe Valley schools in particular has increased by 44% so far this year.

*Not his real name. Image (right) for illustration purposes.

On 23 July, Environmental Detectives held a Latrobe Valley professional development session for teachers who were provided with its programs on a USB drive.

Each USB contained a manual of activities with background reading, follow-up lesson plans, Australian Curriculum links, activity descriptions and other resources.

“My favorite part was finding these little flippy bugs.”

Landcare

PARTNER PROFILE:

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Education is more than just sitting in the classroom. With the Mobile Science Education (MSE) program, students of all ages are given the opportunity to learn some practical lessons in real-life situations.

Under the banner of ‘high-quality science education that comes to you’, MSE has educated, entertained and engaged almost 100,000 students since 2006.

MSE’s Director and Education Manager, Lee Harrison, says MSE is “spreading the idea that to be called a nerd or a geek is one of the greatest compliments anyone can be paid.

“There is nothing wrong with being smart and interested in the world.”

MSE is also committed to raising the profile of sustainable technologies and processes and to providing professional development to teachers.

Among its programs are free tours of GDFSAE’s Loy Yang B power station in the Latrobe Valley and the Pelican Point power station in South Australia.

Program highlights:

• 321 children and 15 teachers from five different schools have taken MSE-hosted tours in the Latrobe Valley this year.

• 850 students (including 159 at tertiary level) and 21 teachers from 13 schools have experienced MSE sessions in the first 2 terms of 2015 at Pelican Point.

“The students are currently writing about the day and I had three students (usually disengaged in writing) come up this morning asking if they can put their writing piece in our newsletter and if we’re able to finish them off today.” Adam Bailey, Morwell Park Primary School.

Mobile Science Education

PARTNER PROFILE:

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Partnering to deliver benefits

Staff go above andbeyond

GDF SUEZ Australian Energy is committed to delivering tangible benefits through CSR programs. That’s why we’re expanding our partnership approach with both our corporate partners and, more importantly, the communities in which we operate.

Through consolidating our major CSR programs and partnerships and complementing this by encouraging greater interaction among our CSR network, I see a terrific opportunity to achieve what I call ‘2+2=5 outcomes’.

For example, we recently assisted The Smith Family to purchase freezers so that they could accept nutritious food deliveries from our FareShare partnership to support their meal programs at Kurnai Secondary College.

During the past 20 years, our company has provided more than

$7 million in community support, including physical legacies such as the Morwell Community Playground and the Traralgon Railway Reservoir Conservation Reserve.

Our primary motivation is to deliver our CSR commitments. We want to continue to work together and support the many amazing people, activities, goals, visions and achievements of our partners and communities.

Among our CSR and stakeholder network, we are actively looking to promote cross-fertilisation of our combined strengths and abilities to continue to make a positive difference.

So, if any of our partners have an idea that can assist our CSR recipients by working together, please contact me on 03 9617 8315 or simon.klapish@gdfsuezau.com .

A new survey shows that GDF SUEZ Australian Energy employees volunteer in their own time at 3.7 times the national average.

This is a great result and - at almost 3 hours a week – is higher than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and Australian, averages of 4 and 6 minutes per day per person.

The level of volunteering emphasises that all employees are an important part of the fabric of the communities where we live and work.

Companies are people and our people are the community, not separate to it. As the GDFSAE statistics show, our own volunteering habits, combined with our CSR activities, are an integral part of who we are and what we do.

B Y S I M O N K L A P I S H

Simon Klapish with some of our Environmental Detectives.

Loy Yang B staff member Frank Bezzina in his role as Koko the Clown.

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Culture and community come together

Latrobe Regional Gallery

Children, youths, adults, the elderly, those with disabilities and a range of cultural groups are experiencing more arts, crafts and creative expression, thanks to the Latrobe Regional Gallery.

In the past four years, the number of participants in the gallery’s education and public programs has increased to more than 7300 annually. And that number is set to keep growing.

The gallery delivers high-quality and tailored education programs which respond to curriculum requirements of pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary arts, VCE art and studio arts, Languages Other Than English, psychology, English, humanities (history) and environmental studies.

In addition to its education programs, the gallery hosts a diverse range of public events that respond to the changing needs of its growing audience. Activities include life drawing classes, artist

talks, tours, master classes, as well as a number of special events.

On top of that, the gallery provides a valuable communal space for extending critical and creative thinking, speaking and listening, observation, as well as essential art appreciation.

Program highlights:

As at 30 June, 2015:

• Total of 2953 participants

• 24 education programs delivered

• 112 public programs delivered

• 430 students engaged

• 471 public program participants engaged

• 90 creative development participants engaged

• 854 special event participants engaged

• 1108 ‘Lane’ (early & primary year students) participants engaged.

PARTNER PROFILE:

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FareShare www.fareshare.net.au

Interchange Gippsland www.icg.asn.au

Read the Play Inc.www.readtheplay.org.au

Operation Flinderswww.operationflinders.org.au

The Latrobe Regional Gallerywww.latroberegionalgallery.com

Bass Coast Landcare Environmental Detectiveswww.landcareonline.com.au

Mobile Science Educationwww.mobilescienceeducation.com.au

Life Education Gippslandwww.lifeeducation.org.au

Gippsland Swimmingwww.gippslandswimming.org.au

GDF SUEZ Gippsland Power Football Club Gippsland Power Football Club

Latrobe Valley Baseball Associationwww.latrobevalley.baseball.com.au

Youth Focus www.youthfocus.com.au

Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Sanctuarywww.blackcockatoorecovery.com

Balvidis Children’s Forestwww.baldivis-childrens-forest.com.au

City of Kwinana local school festival day – Freakfestwww.livekwinana.com.au

Secret Harbour Surf Life Saving Clubwww.secretharbourslsc.com

Tyers Arts Festival

City of Rockingham Castaways Sculpture Innovation Award

North Haven Surf Life Saving Club

The Hazelwood Multisport Festival

Rockingham Local Drug Action Group

Baringa Special School Friendship Games

Gippsland Primary Schools Sports Camp

The Latrobe City Council Children’s Traffic School

Our Partners

www.gdfsuezau.com

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