Youth Leadership Course with Drummond Street Relationship Centre and Victorian Arabic Social Services

Free Debate volunteers participated in another excellent youth leadership program developed by Victorian Arabic Social Services (VASS), in conjunction with the Drummond Street Relationship Centre.

We worked with 10 young women and 10 young men on developing a confident speaking style. Each of the participants wrote and delivered a short speech on a topic that they felt passionate about. The range of topics was impressive - from concerns about animal rights, the environment, and knife crime, to a passionately argued case to allow 16 year olds with good school attendance records to begin driving.

Free Debate volunteers also assisted the participants to provide feedback to their peers, with a focus on bolstering the speaker's confidence.

In one of the two sessions we were lucky enough to have in the audience a lawyer from Youthlaw. This meant the young people were able to deliver their speeches to a (very impressed) representative from an advocacy body.

About VASS: One of Free Debate's strongest partners, VASS is a state-wide key service provider with specialist expertise and knowledge in working with Arabic-speaking-background communities.

Melton Secondary College

Free Debate trainer Anthony Kung conducted 4 sessions of debating training for 16 Year 10 students at Melton Secondary College.

The students who participated were reserved at first but seemed to revel in the opportunity to express and discuss opinions. The practice debate about the ethics of animal testing showcased a range of views and honed their ability to refine an argument, while the forum about bushfire policy highlighted their improved knowledge of current affairs and government policies.

The improvements in engagement and confidence were obvious!

Free Debate thanks Margaret Canaway at Melton SC for the opportunity to work with the students.

Free Debate Pre-Australs 2009!

From 29 June to 1 July 2009, Free Debate, in conjunction with Monash Australs, welcomed 56 debaters and 12 trainers from 6 countries across Asia to the third Free Debate Pre-Australs Tournament!

The tournament involved 5 rounds, semi and grand finals, a fun-filled championship dinner as well as two training forums - focusing on debating skills, strategies, tips and tactics.

Congratulations to the winning team from the University of Tokyo comprised of Dai Oba, Ryotaro Tanaka and Atsushi Inatsuka. Congratulations also to the best speaker of the tournament, Alex Keen from MMU Melaka.

Thanks to all the tournament participants for making this such an enjoyable and high quality event. Particular thanks to our amazing collection of trainers. These trainers included: Kim Little, Liz Sheargold, Rob Koh, Lynne Featonby, Lucia Pietropaoli, Tim Sonnreich, Kylie Lane, Melany Tejda, Logandran Balavijendran, Sharmilla Parmanand, Tim Jeffrie and Julia Bowes!

And special thanks to the Monash Australs team who helped us out with logistics!

Refugee Week Exhibition Debate

Free Debate was once again pleased to help out with the annual Great Refugee Week Debate.

This year's debate was held on 17 June at Whitten Oval and coincided with the launch of Maribrynong Council's Building Bridges - Cultural Games booklet. The booklet contains lots of fun games from different cultures and is part of a programme designed to bring people together through playing games.

This year's debate topic was That It's Better to Make Music than Kick Goals a spirited and entertaining debate about the merits of Music vs. Sports. Once again the debate featured a team from Braybrook Secondary College (on the affirmative side) against a team of adults (on the negative).

Free Debate's Roland Dillon and Rob Koh helped coach the adult team (Duku, Claudia and Deng), but once again the students proved victorious on the night due to their imagination, humour, logic and Chris Judd.

Thanks again to Kiemi Lai, Engaged Communities Coordinator of the Western Bulldogs and Vanessa Korfiatis of Maribyrnong Council.

DAV Development Squad 2009

Free Debate's Liz Sheargold and Rob Koh were invited to help out with the Debaters Association of Victoria's 2009 Development Squad. Each year the DAV selects a Development Squad, a group of specially selected promising debaters from various secondary schools throughout Victoria, and provides intensive debating training.

Rob presented an interactive lecture on economics and Liz facilitated a British Parliamentary style debate on the topic That We Should Radically Increase Taxation on Alcohol Consumption.

We'd like to wish the Development Squad all the best and we hope to see you again soon! (And not just on facebook).

St Albans Secondary College

Free Debate trainer Anthony Kung conducted debating training for some year 8 and 9 students at St Albans Secondary College.

After outlining the fundamentals of argument, persuasion and presentation the students put their skills to excellent use in the DAV Schools Debating Competition. They displayed improved argument formulation, greater confidence and a real enthusiasm for debating!

Free Debate thanks Fiona Taylor for her eagerness and for allowing Free Debate to facilitate this introduction to debating.

Western Chances Young Western Leaders Summit 2009

Free Debate trainers Kim Little, Ajay Kevat, Lucia Pietropaoli, Amit Golder and Lynne Featonby conducted a lengthy session as part of the Western Chances Young Western Leaders Summit.

After an introduction to the basics of persuasion and public speaking the students were split into small groups and asked to prepare and present a speech on a topic of their choice.

The diversity of topics was impressive and the participants displayed real passion for their subjects. They learned and spoke with enthusiasm and the feedback from the students suggested that the interactive session was as rewarding for them as it was for the trainers.

Free Debate thanks Helen Worladge and Zion Abatayo for organising an excellent event and inviting Free Debate to participate.