By Casey Neill
Nobody in Ebony Rech’s family has a driver’s licence or a car, so clocking up her learner driver hours was a struggle.
Fellow Noble Park resident Silvie Parizek leant a hand through the L2P Learner Driver Mentor Program.
Ebony got her licence in February.
“I called my family straight away,” she said.
“They were screaming over the phone saying ‘well done we’re so proud of you’.
“My mum and my Nan started crying over the phone.
“Helping my Nan with the groceries is a lot easier.
“Before we would always walk home from the shops with our groceries or catch public transport.”
Ms Parizek got involved with Dandenong-based Jesuit Social Services about three or four years ago, first as a mentor and then as a L2P volunteer.
“I’ve supervised a number of drivers, and two successfully with getting their licence,” she said.
“Ebony’s learnt a lot, and I’ve learnt a lot from her.”
They spent just under 60 hours together on country and city drives in different weather and traffic conditions.
Ms Parizek said an hour a week was the minimum requirement.
“People have got busy lives, but an hour a week, it’s so rewarding for both of you,” she said.
“We spend an hour breezing through Facebook.
Jesuit Social Services’s John Wall said L2P was a state-wide VicRoads-managed initiative that followed the introduction of mandatory 120 hours driving practice for learners.
“TAC funds it. That gets auspiced out to different local councils to run,” he said.
“City of Greater Dandenong passed the program onto Jesuit Social Services to run.”
The charity provides the vehicles and training for mentors.
It desperately needs more people to sit in the passenger seat for young people aged 16 to 20 years.
“We have about a six-month waiting list,” he said.
“We connect them with a couple of driving schools initially to get some lessons and get them up to scratch.
“Then we connect them with a mentor.
“We just don’t have enough mentors so we tend to keep them longer on professional lessons until we can find a match.”
Volunteers need to be aged over 25 years, hold a full licence and a Working With Children Check, and pass a police check and a VicRoads check “to make sure they don’t have huge numbers of demerit points”.
Contact John or Rose on mentoring@jss.org.au or 9791 6596 to get involved.
