Collaboration is what is first emphasised by lecturer of the Lentara studio for Media students, Seth Keen, and it is becoming clear the extent of the collaboration involved in this studio. I discover that the Media students will collaborate with Design students to work with Lentara to produce non-fiction artefacts. Lentara is a not-for-profit agency, offering much needed support to a large amount of people across Australia. To be closely involved with Lentara will be highly beneficial for me to not only understand how a not-for-profit agency like them operates, but also to learn more about the the communities they support.
To have Jeff Jones from Lentara come in and introduce himself and give a presentation to inform the entire Media and Design studio group about what Lentara is about and what they do helped build our initial relationship and understanding. Lentara deals with a wide variety of important social issues and their “mission in life” is to “create opportunities for children, families and individuals to flourish in a fair and generous community.” This is something I’m more than enthusiastic to be involved with and I’m sure a lot of the other students would be of a similar feeling.
During the presentation, I discover just how much work Lentara do, some of their statistics:
- They support over 2 million people all over Australia
- Australia’s largest non-government provider of community services
- Revenue last year was $19.7 million with a $1 million profit (used for safety)
- 200 active volunteers providing over 20000 hours
Jeff would go on to say, “If we didn’t have volunteers, we’ll probably be broke.” We soon learn that volunteering is very close to what the studio group will be doing, managing, researching and exploring ideas around current and new initiatives. Jeff stated that through his experiences with Lentara, it has changed his perspective about society and has humbled him in a way. So beyond the statistics, he was able to connect with us on a personal level.
As part of the studio, there will be groups of 5-6 people formed from the Media and Design classes. Each group will be assigned one of the following Lentara initiatives: Clothing bins, Men’s Shed, Shower Bus, Asylum Housing and Lentara identity. As we learnt on the first studio class, students from each of the programs have a wide variety of skills to offer and for the assignment to be successful, we must harness each person’s skill set the best way we can.
Currently being involved doing media work for charity Helping Hoops and favouring towards a career in the community sector, I think this studio is quickly looking like it will provide me with the experience, knowledge and opportunity I will truly value.