Jacqui Clevens can still remember the day she got her first ‘A’ grade for a school assessment.
The positive impact it had on her as a teenager, who had previously struggled with her education, still reverberates today.
After struggling at numerous mainstream schools, Clevens enrolled at Carinity Education Southside, an all-girls special assistance school at Sunnybank in Brisbane.
This year, the school is celebrating 25 years of supporting young women who have previously faced barriers to education.
“I had struggled in primary school, which lead me to struggle in high school,” she said. “Having supportive people at Southside that I could go to … it was almost like a family. The teachers were so understanding, supportive and thorough in the way they educated us.”
Clevens said the first ‘A’ she ever got was in Science in Grade 9 at Southside.
“I still remember it like it was yesterday; the feeling of seeing that ‘A’ on the paper. It gave me so much self-confidence and it felt so good knowing that somebody actually believed in me.”
The school features a purpose-built on-site creche and early learning centre, which has enabled young mothers like Clevens to access free, quality childcare while continuing their education.
Long-time Southside supporter and student mentor, Diane Heidke, said since 1997 the school had assisted young women “floundering in the river of life taking them nowhere” and helped them achieve their full potential.
“This school catches girls at a very vulnerable time and gives them the care and support missing from their lives. In doing so, what seemed impossible before – a good education – especially for young mothers, was within their reach,” Heidke said.
“On occasion the principal at the time, Colleen Mitrow, and one of the Indigenous teachers would drive to known hangouts looking for vulnerable Southside students.”
Heidke said the students would be brought to school where they were given warm food, counselling and encouraged to resume their studies.
“There are many women today who testify that Southside Education saved their lives.”
Colleen Mitrow, Southside Education's foundation Principal, said the school’s curriculum was set up specifically to assist young women who had previously struggled in other educational environments.
“Difference is not valued in our mainstream school system. Young people’s social and emotional needs are often neglected which means such disadvantaged and marginalised young people often cannot set or aspire to reaching educational goals,” she said.
“Southside’s key premise of accepting young women and their families with unconditional positive regard was key to our success. We treated all the girls with the greatest respect and tailored a special response catered to their individual needs.”
Mitrow said the school stood out for its “absolute acceptance” of each girl as unique, each bringing her own special gifts to our school community.
“It was up to us to help them to recognise their abilities and to regain confidence and hope for a future.”
Since graduating from Year 12 in 2007, Jacqui has worked in residential care and community services supporting kids “who went through the same sort of things I went through as a teen.”
“If it wasn’t for Southside, I think things would have been a lot more difficult for me. A lot of my peers that I kicked around with as a teenager, they’re now heavily involved in drugs and alcohol or they’re dead or in jail,” Clevens said.
“Southside helped me in so many ways. They helped me find my voice. They helped break down a lot of barriers for me, as an Aboriginal person and as a young mum. I wouldn’t be as successful as I am without Southside.”