By Casey Neill
Sarah Williams involves young people in art projects to bring about social change.
She’s worked in the Dandenong area for the past 10 years as a youth worker and with the organisation she co-founded, Footprints.
On Friday 26 January she received the leadership honour at the Greater Dandenong Australia Day Awards in Dandenong Park.
“I’m pretty excited to be acknowledged for the award and it’s just lovely to know that the work is getting to more prominent levels,” Ms Williams said.
“It’s about the young people mostly, so for me it represents them.”
She dedicated the award to founding Footprints mentor Erjok Nai, “a member of the community that we lost too soon”.
“It was his presence and a few trips to South Sudan in particular that set me on the trajectory to do this work,” Ms Williams said.
Another young person from Footprints put her up for the nod.
“I guess the idea behind Footprints is that we create spaces to bring about social change through the creative arts,” she said.
“We’ve done a number of projects within the City of Greater Dandenong.”
Her most recent Footprints endeavour in the area was The Grounded Project, which included workshops, flash mobs, school performances, a camp and a concert in Harmony Square.
It aimed to inspire, educate and empower culturally diverse young people to reach their potential.
“The idea was to make the positive stories of young people’s contributions to society more prominent and create some more positive media,” Ms Williams said.
She thanked project partners Borderlands Cooperative, Jungle City Projects and South Sudanese Australian Youth United in particular, “a community whose resilience despite much public scrutiny continues to inspire me”.
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