From little things

A sunny Saturday morning on the Fleurieu calls for one thing: a visit to the Willunga Farmers Market. It’s a fitting backdrop to meet community-lover Lauren Jew and conversation and smiles flow in a fine display of unity as Lauren talks me through her journey.

Director of Community Innovation and Participation at Aldinga Payinthi College, Lauren is no stranger to uniting folk. ‘What draws me to the south is the sense of community, abundance of resources and people, and the environment and opportunities where people come together,’ Lauren tells me as we dodge a barefoot game of market chasey.

When you love a place, it makes sense to do what you can to see it grow. Community outreach shapes Lauren’s identity in an admirable way, and volunteering has always been at the heart of her involvement.

From setting up the Southern Deadly Fun Run through the Indigenous Marathon Foundation, advocating for Fred’s Van and starting her Tenx9 Fleurieu project (where nine people gather to tell a story based on a particular topic for ten minutes), to volunteering for the Rotary Club of Seaford and establishing the Onkaparinga region’s first edible garden, it’s likely Lauren’s path has crossed yours at some stage. The Giving Garden on Aldinga’s Evans Street allows the local community to take what they need and leave what they can. ‘It bothers me that community and environment are often the things that go in government budgets. These are the things that matter and what we need for our future,’ Lauren says, her passion to create change shining through.

Playing sport and having a mum who was heavily involved in coaching state netball meant community participation was ingrained in Lauren from a young age. However, the current South Coast Ward candidate admits her former high school teachers at Cardijn College probably wouldn’t have picked her as one to run for local council.

‘My economics teacher, Mr Burrows, once told me that I could do anything, but I just needed to follow through,’ says Lauren, reminiscing on her school days as a less-than-ideal student. Perhaps it was a certain determination to prove Chris Burrows right, or a special talking-to from the school’s deputy principal at the time, Judith Ratican, that changed Lauren’s trajectory.

‘I was always getting in trouble and one day Ms Ratican asked me if I realised I was getting other kids in trouble too, so I don’t think she liked me very much,’ Lauren says. It takes a special teacher to spot leadership within students, which is exactly the direction Ms Ratican steered Lauren on that day.

‘Despite being in trouble, she suggested I apply for the National Youth Roundtable,’ Lauren says. ‘Though I knew I had community at heart, that conversation made me realise I could give it a go,’ she says.

At the impressionable age of 14, Lauren was on the Australian Youth Forum and National Youth Roundtable, where she started to see that young voices matter. ‘Having those really early opportunities allowed me to realise that we can influence the world around us,’ she remembers.

As a keen-spirited youngster, Lauren poured her blossoming leadership skills into an Onkaparinga Council graffiti project with young offenders, which was eventually picked up and rolled out over other council areas across the state and country.

From there, one thing led to another and Lauren took an opportunity to work on a project with an Aboriginal man from North-East Arnhem Land, where she lived for a year and a half learning language.

‘It was an eye opener to realise there are people who have always lived in Australia, whose third or fifth language is English,’ Lauren recalled. ‘I always had a strong sense of social justice, but it was then I started to understand the significant disparity in outcomes for people,’ she says.

Now in her role at Aldinga Payinthi College, Lauren activates the uniquely shared space in a way that makes sure it delivers what the community wants. From arts through to sport and local meetings, the school has housed 1,044 hours of community use and connected over 7,000 different people in its first three terms.

This leadership story proves that from little things, big things grow. It’s safe to say Lauren is thriving in a role that doesn’t exist in any other school across the state. ‘It’s really nice being able to forge your own path,’ Lauren reflects.

Proof that you can fit oodles of good into fifteen years of community service, Lauren circles back to her pivotal Cardijn days and fondly reflects on how the school’s ‘See, Judge, Act’ motto has continued to stick with her throughout years of community outreach. ‘Just this idea of seeing something, considering it and doing something about it is always what I want to stay true to.’

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