The Universal

Why join Community Involvement?

Community Involvement is a club that seeks to volunteer its services to the local community. Our programs give special attention to those disadvantaged. Thus, our volunteer work involves aiding in developing communication skills with the mentally disabled or those of migrant backgrounds. However, there is no limit to the sort of help we give. You may like to help out at a soup kitchen, visit an elderly person's home, help out those who haven't mastered English or read to or entertain kids in hospital.

CI is all about making conscious efforts to better the lot of others. Naturally, this stems from a need to break out of the University mould of assignment due dates and Union-sponsored beer orgies. We'd like to think we appeal to all those who yearn to rise above the status quo and the axiom of self-interest. Well, let's call it enlightened self-interest, O.K? Members find that they themselves gain enormously from their experiences and personally grow in themselves.

Besides the volunteer work, CI is a very social club. Many people find that clubs tend to claim to be open and friendly yet contain closed groups. CI is really, truly free of cliques and other such nasties (yes, it really is!). CI boasts a great bunch of people who beckon from many faculties, sporting and social persuasions. We ourselves sometimes wonder how we all get along since we're such a motley bunch.

Often, the challenge for all first years is to find a place at University where they fit in (many 3rd year students too!). A place where they feel they can be themselves, express their eccentricities and personalities without being made to feel peculiar for it. We hope that CI will be one of those places...

The Most Conspicuous Lie About Volunteering

Contrary to popular belief volunteer work is not glamorous. We don't consider ourselves to be one of the more fashionable clubs at Uni but hey volunteering is not something to flaunt. It takes some self-motivation trying to piece together a reasonable semester of volunteer sorties. What is important is that you the volunteer do as much as feel you can do, no more no less. There are of course no obligations in terms of time and workload in volunteering Believe me, many eager members have signed up during O-Week and found any number of obstacles keep them away from our meetings and activities (schoolwork is often a factor, funnily). Sure volunteering can be fun, yet what keeps volunteers going is a keen sense of satisfaction and belief that what they're sharing in with others is valuable and has meaning. This is the only prerequisite we maintain.

How Do I Get Involved?

Involvement is very simple. If you have somewhat of a pioneering spirit, an urge to do something then participating should be a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Members will be encouraged to participate in a particular CI activity that they feel will suit their capabilities and interests. But, don't be scared of over committing yourself. There are no hidden commitments and the amount of time you give to an activity

is in no way fixed. If there are certain activities that require regular commitment then it will be made known to you by a particular activity co-ordinator. The volunteer's interests are always paramount. Volunteering as a university student can be a fulfilling experience, but of course it must be tempered by the call to exams and an over fulfilled social life. If both pursuits are maintained, time at Uni can bring even greater satisfaction.

What Programs are available to me at Community Involvement?

Current Activities

Westall Tutoring Service: Close to Monash Clayton is a high school with a 95% student body who come from ethnic background. CI's Westall tutors seek to aid them in their studies of English, Maths and so on. Our aim is to foster an atmosphere of understanding and academic progress. A delegation of CI's intelligentsia go every Thursday afternoon to help in the learning process.

Westall Conversation Class: This program runs on Tuesday lunch times between 12pm and 1pm. What happens is a group of CI go down to interact with Westall students in a much more relaxed manner as we play board games, drink coffee and converse with them so as to improve their confidence in using English or giving a sympathetic ear to their problems.

Dixon House: Situated near Clayton station is a centre which caters for the language needs of adult migrants who have recently arrived in Australia. Here we help tutor them in basic English lessons and help to break down some of the language and cultural barriers.

Oakleigh Intellectually Disabled: This program involves getting out with people who are mentally handicapped. This will bolster their ability to communicate with others and develop their experience of life to the fullest.

St. Kilda Food Hall: On Saturday mornings some of us make a trip to help out at a soup kitchen in Grey Street, St. Kilda. We help prepare food, serve and clean up for those who cannot afford a decent lunch. So if you have willing hands, come with us to St. Kilda. This program is run by the Catholic Sacred Heart Mission.

Community Involvement activities still being negotiated

Mulgrave Retirement Centre: Volunteers are needed to read to elderly persons at a home in Mulgrave. Promoting communication is a vital element in CI's philosophy and no where is it more apparent than in this program.

Parkville Detention Centre: Community Involvement is seeking to devise a program whereby some of its members (particularly those with a notable talent in some field of interest) may help in creative workshops with a group of juvenile offenders. It must be mentioned that this program is a work in progress (or rather in negotiation) and its viability is yet to be confirmed.

Dandenong Hospital: Our club is also looking at involving interested members in entertaining patients in the children's ward of Dandenong Hospital. Once again, this may entail using ready talents and hopefully, some participants will be handy jugglers.

Can volunteering really be a worthwhile experience? I mean, isn't there a welfare state out there to help people who are disadvantaged? Do I not have other prerogatives like studying and going out? Why me?

These are the questions we face as we think about offering our services to others. Well, despite the welfare state, there is no substitute for personal human contact and social exchange. We don't begin to alleviate problems by merely splashing tax payer's money on aid programs. By voluntarily offering ourselves we give more than the impersonal face of bureaucracies, we help with compassion and respect for those disadvantaged in our society. Moreover, by standing up to be counted, we're hoping not just to help others but to help ourselves. It has been a club philosophy that by volunteering, we will learn something about ourselves and grow in that new-found knowledge.

What is CI Committee?

CI committee are the people who do their best to co-ordinate all the activities and general running of the club. But hey, don't ever stand in awe of them even if they ask it of you. The term "Co-ordinator" is only used because it sounds good, not because these people are competent or intelligible. Basically, they are there to answer all your questions and make your volunteer experience as seamless as possible. CI is not a club that depends very much on hierarchy because of the very hands-on nature of volunteer work. We have two club presidents, a secretary, treasurer, social and sports co-ordinators, a publicity team and the individual activity co-ordinators. It must be remembered that the individual is the most powerful agent of action and change in all circumstances. Structures don't act, people do.

Keeping the Initiative

Volunteering is all about one's beliefs and acting on them. It's all about momentum. One that can survive a few obstacles and discouraging moments. It is with this resolve that we propose to be active locally. CI's activities are all roughly based in and around the city of Monash. Yet, we highly recommend that you keep us informed of volunteering opportunities in your local area. An emphasis on local work will help us grow from a mere Clayton club to one with many centres of volunteering activities. We propose to do this by co-ordinating our growth with local volunteer agencies:

Camberwell Volunteer Network
Tel: (03) 882-5860

Eastern Volunteer Resource Centre Inc.
Tel: (03) 870-7822

Waverley Volunteer Outreach Inc.
Tel: (03) 562-0414

The co-ordinating body of these agencies which make up an Eastern Volunteer Management Project is the Volunteer Centre of Victoria.  Tel: (03) 650-5541

What keeps Community Involvement going?

CI is a club that depends on people. It depends on individual persons who feel that to make a difference, they must offer something of themselves. In the long run, it often turns out that that little something of themselves that they give finds its way back to them as something greater and more meaningful.

This is what carries CI as a club. Never feel that ideas for new volunteering activities lie with presidents or co-ordinators. People with initiative are the most notable at CI. CI itself is merely a social base for social action. It may be catalyst to carry your volunteer work beyond your University days. Or it may be a source of fond memories and late-night reminiscences at dead parties (yes I know we're pulling it a bit far there). What is crucial is your willingness to contribute. If you've found another area in which people's talents would be useful for those disadvantaged, then propose it at the next CI meeting, publicise it in the newsletter and generate interest. If you feel strongly about it then co-ordinate it yourself and draw on the club membership to help you. However, what is all-important is the spirit in which we volunteer. What we want to maintain is a strong fellowship at the club which has pretty much survived throughout its history. The kind of co-operative spirit that soars above personal pretences. So volunteer, raise up your hands and make the outcomes you desire...

The Universal:

CI has a regular club newspaper, the Universal. It is a forum for club news and promotes debate and discussion on activities and issues. The exchange of ideas is also enormously important as it helps generate a sense of participation and continuity in what the club does. There are so many different things that various CI members are doing that without a club newsletter it would be hard to gain an overall sense of where the club is heading. The Universal strives to report on all activities and developments in the club. We'll be expecting a piece of writing about your feelings about the club, an issue you feel needs discussion or just tell us about the last film you saw (even if it was Disclosure, I hear Demi was fantastic...). Just write it down.

Assessing What You Would Like to Do...

Volunteering involves giving of one's time and talent.
Therefore it is important that we know what your capacities and interests are:

Name:						Phone:


In what areas would you be willing to offer help?



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(this entails innumerable volunteering options - tutoring English to kids or adult migrants, helping out at a soup kitchen, working with people with mental or physical disabilities, visiting/entertaining hospital patients. These are the immediate volunteering options open to you through our club. However, we liase with local volunteer agencies who colud offer you more depth to your work. As well as our programs, Waverley Outreach and its sister agencies could offer you tasks such as:

Administrative work, Adult literacy tutoring, Assisting elderly, Assisting people with disabilities, Assisting with therapy programs, Books on Wheels, Bus Driving, Childcae, Clerical/Typing work, Committee work, Friendly visiting, Gardening, Home & Hospital visits, Hospital Work, Meals on Wheels delivery, Op-Shop work, Youth work...