Lawrence Chan is one of 68 volunteers at The Huddle who have donated their time over the past year to provide young people with the opportunity to learn new skills and grow their confidence.

A volunteer at The Huddle since 2019, Chan said it is the opportunity to stay connected and support the community that makes the work so rewarding.

“I joined The Huddle as a math tutor to help young people with their homework after school when I moved to Werribee,” Chan said.

“It is fulfilling to see students learn how to figure out problems and to see their confidence grow over time is amazing, it makes me really happy.

“Volunteering with The Huddle affords me the opportunity to stay connected with my community and the rewards are instant.”

In 2019, The Huddle volunteers generously donated more than 2,750 hours of their time to support young people and empower them to achieve their educational and career goals.

“It is a good feeling to see students achieve their goals. To see the students pick up new skills and learn independently is really gratifying,” said Nieve Powell who has been a volunteer at The Huddle for the past year.

A past participant of The Huddle’s programs, Powell says tutoring has provided her an opportunity to learn new skills and stay connected to the community despite COVID-19 restrictions being in place across the state.

“Since COVID-19 restrictions came in, tutoring with Study Squad has helped provide structure to my day and tutoring through Zoom has taught me how to use different explanatory models.

“It has helped me mentally being able to stay connected to the community and it’s also nice to be able to see people outside my house even if I can’t physically be there.”

It is more important to stay connected now than ever before. Through their work with The Huddle, our volunteers are part of positive change within their community, connecting with likeminded people while supporting young people.

Study Squad runs every Monday-Thursday evening from 4-7pm during school terms and offers FREE one-on-one and group tutoring in a safe, inclusive, and interactive space.

If you would like more information on how you can get involved in supporting our young people learn, grow, and belong, please contact HuddleVolunteers@nmfc.com.au or visit our website here.