Upper Ferntree Gully’s Coonara Community House has received a boost of $6,757 from Variety the Children’s Charity, to create a computer lab designed to help youth who are on the spectrum with computer gaming coding and programming skills.
Coonara Community House manager Sandra Romero said the lab network has been running for a long time, but new funding has provided three hard drives with more capability for graphics.
“There’s a lot of bullying, there’s a lot of ignorance and perhaps lack of education around what being on the spectrum means and how to develop a relationship with someone on the spectrum, and that’s really hard because of their social difficulties,” Ms Romero said.
“What we love about here is not only do we have access to gaining and consoles everything that goes around with coding as well, but the relationships that are formed are fantastic.
“We have young teenagers presenting really withdrawn or really antisocial because they don’t have those techniques. And a week, two weeks, three weeks later, they’re high-fiving their colleagues because they can’t wait to come here, and their parents are driving from up from whoop whoop just to come to this particular class.”
Coonara Community House was the first stop of Variety the Children’s Charity’s Rally Around Victoria on Friday 3 March, with some 25 motorists with various types of vehicles hitting the roads to raise funds for children living with disability, disadvantage or illness.
“We’re making lots of stops in the coming four days, granting to kids and communities along the way, as well as also spending money in regional communities,” Variety the Children’s Charity CEO Mandy Burns said.
“Variety as a children’s charity recognises that kids and communities sometimes face challenges, that, despite being a lucky country, we have gaps, particularly left by NDIS or Medicare or education, and Variety raises money to fill those gaps.
“The people that are coming along today on the rally around Victoria are part of that fundraising effort to help to raise funds for communities and kids and to help make a difference.”
With two classes running on a Tuesday and Thursday each week for youth aged 10 to 16, with around 10 to 15 participants, Ms Romero said she expects demand for programming workshops to keep increasing.
“We were so grateful to be able to receive three brand new hard drives to accommodate the needs of the lab network, and it’s just to start with; if we can take another class, the demand is just going to keep increasing.”
