Earlier this month a team of eight young interns launched their design for a new Memorial Garden, to be built at Edgar’s Mission Sanctuary in Lancefield.
The garden will be a place of quiet reflection that pays tribute to animal residents that have died and honours the bond between them and their sanctuary carers.
More than 50 people came for an exclusive view of the completed design before construction of the garden begins in spring.
The interns are all participants in Youth Take Over, which offers group-based work experience for young people living in the Loddon Campaspe region. It aims to help young people become work-ready and find employment opportunities with a new project to showcase their skills.
“We always try to tailor our work experience projects to both industry needs and the interests of young people in our region,” said Ryan Hale, Youth Take Over project director.
“We’d heard from a lot of young people that they wanted to work with animals, so we set about designing a work experience that met that particular interest.”
Youth Take Over approached Edgar’s Mission, a not-for-profit farmed animal sanctuary, to discuss a project that would suit the program.
A memorial garden had been a long-held dream of the team at Edgar’s Mission, and now it could be made a reality.
Youth Take Over recruited a team of eight young interns, aged 16-22, who met weekly for eight weeks to work on the design.
Guided by landscape architects from Pollen Studio, the interns learned about all aspects of landscape architecture – from plant selection to costing and drainage – and applied this to their design.
Along the way they also built crucial work-readiness skills, such as communication, time management, project management, and collaboration.
Speaking at the launch event, the interns also reflected on the strong team bond that developed between them, and their Youth Take Over experience.
“It was a very collaborative process…all of us were bouncing off each other a lot,” intern Bella Dredge said.
The project was supported by a number of local businesses, including Kupper’s Contracting, The Straw Brothers and Mt William Advanced Tree Nursery, who have assisted with materials, labour and mentoring.
Woodend Rotary also supported the project, with volunteers offering mentoring at each of the sessions.
One of them, careers coach Jon Hazelton, ran two career sessions with the interns, where they explored possible career paths, identified their strengths and learnt how to talk about these in a job application.
While the Take Over has come to an end, the interns plan to reunite in October to help with the first stage of the garden construction, assisted by the Pollen team and Edgar’s Mission volunteers.
“We are so grateful for all the hard work and the great level of detail that has gone into the Memorial Garden design,” said Bianca Romero, sanctuary experience officer at Edgar’s Mission.
“It is very exciting to see this project in motion and it is all thanks to [the Pollen team] along with the incredible interns.”
Youth Take Over is an initiative of North Central LLEN in partnership with the Loddon Campaspe LLENs and sponsored by the Agnico Eagle Community Partnership Program.
To learn more about Youth Take Over visit: youthtakeover.org.au
