The Levendale Film Project

Tasmania has amongst the lowest levels of educational attainment and achievement in Australia. The state also has high rates of unemployment, disability, mental illness, chronic illness, and poverty. Strategies seeking to improve educational participation rates need to consider this wider context of social hardship and its impact on children, particularly in rural areas. This project addressed these issues through a partnership between Social Work at the University of Tasmania, Levendale Community Group Inc., and Mosaic Services. ‘People building people’ at Levendale aimed to increase the resilience of disadvantaged rural children, adults, and communities. The project sought to build individual resilience and social connectedness between two disadvantaged groups: children who are vulnerable to restricted educational and vocational aspirations; and adults with disabilities who have limited employment opportunities. The model provides an innovative way of transforming the life chances of ‘at risk’ children while also positively enhancing future opportunities for adults with disabilities. Adult clients of Mosaic Services were trained in film production and how to work with children. They then shared their film-making expertise with disadvantaged primary school-age children from Campagnia School. The strategy enabled the children to complete their own film production projects about important their lives. The workshops were conducted at the former Levendale Primary School.