What’s up people? I hope everyone had a happy new year! The Street University is back open. With our first year
 complete the 
upcoming year looks to be filled with many new changes and programs. There will be more indoor soccer tournaments, different dance classes and plenty more. The café will be up and running very soon, so come and have a coffee hang out, try one of our free workshops or rip the music scene up as
 usual. Peace.

The first of many tours started on an early Sunday morning for the four young band members of the Revelations. We were all excited, nervous and not sure what to expect. The first two days were more like a holiday due to the first gig being cancelled. We stayed in one of Byron Bay’s finest hotels, with the beach only a short walk away. It was a mellow start to a very hectic week. Even though we didn’t play, the Revelations did not stop the music, serenading the hotel with their smooth sounds.

Monday night was the Original Wailers first performance in Australia and the first chance that Bob Marley fans were able to see any of his songs performed live. The Wailers showed off their dance moves to the calypso rhythm, the crowd in awe grooved on a natural high. Bouncing to the reggae beats in Byron Bay was certainly a highlight of the tour, but the boys were looking forward to being up on the stage…

Now we all recognize the HSC as the most stressful part of high school life in Sydney and the best way to overcome that stress is to be confident and trusting in yourself to know what you are doing. The Street University offers homework support for free to all high school, university and tafe students within South Western Sydney. The numbers of students who come in on homework support days are constantly on the rise, as all services are free and very effective. To all the Year 12 Students of 2009, everyone at The Street University would like to congratulate you all on finishing the HSC and to the upcoming year doing the HSC, we wish you all good luck, and that we are here to help on Tuesdays and Fridays 4pm to 6pm.

Hip Hop Legends Nas, Chali 2na, MC Supernatural and Dj Q-Bert have just finished the Low-Fi tour with support acts being Street Uni’s own L-Fresh, Sie- - 1, Voke 2, Mr Klash and Tom Rock, they “rocked” every show from Perth to Sydney. Audience members were amazed by the energy from the opening acts, which only increased as the show went on.

The tour was described by L-Fresh as being “one of the best weeks of his life”, having learnt a lot in terms of performance from the other acts and also experiencing some moments of side splitting hilarity courtesy of funny man Sie-1, the boys came back tired but inspired on what was a great tour.

Check out L-Fresh’s diary entries from free street press mag 3D World!!
www.threedworld.com.au

Stay tuned for more tour updates when “The Revelations” support the Original Wailers.

There is a line in the heart-warming film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. The film follows a somewhat dysfunctional family on a road trip across America. In the film the family leaves their youngest at the gas station. Having turned back to collect her the father yells, “ No one gets left behind!”

In the past week we have looked into the eyes of too many young people who society has left behind.

For most of us adolescence was defined by a feeling of optimism and a confidence and wisdom beyond our years.  As Mark Twain observed “ When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

But what if you’re a teenager with a child, a young adult without basic education, or a young man who after serving almost one fifth of his life behind bars emerges to find he has been left behind.

All of us have experienced despair. So imagine if you can the despair of a 17 year old feeling that their life is over, before it has even begun.

Feel it.

Sit there.

Rest in that despair.

Now hear the words “NO ONE gets left behind” 

We believe that no young person, whatever their history, is a write off.

We believe that every young person is worth investing time, energy and opportunities in. We believe that every young person is worth going back for.

After all Nelson Mandela was a criminal for twenty-five years before he emerged to end apartheid, leaving his mark on the world.  And wasn’t that an ending worth waiting for.              

I am a human being and no one in the world is a stranger to me.

Before he passed away, my grandfather had held thousands of weddings and burials in a tiny church squeezed into the centre of Kings Cross named The Wayside Chapel. During his sermon he would often say “I am child of the stars. My religion, like the clothes I wear, will one day belong to the dust of the cosmos. Our sons and daughters are princes and princesses of an eternal kingdom. They will inherit the riches and resources of this tiny planet before departing and continuing their journey through time and space.”

Ted Noffs

His message is one we carry forward today at the Street University. The message is this: What we believe is not as important as living our life in the present moment. Although the present moment is for us, the implications of our decisions right now will affect our children’s lives and the future of the earth.

Ted was accused of heresy by the Church three times in his short life. The Uniting Church, which today hold many of Ted’s beliefs to be an integral part of their system, at that time assumed that Ted’s ideas around The Family of Humanity were absurd.

When we were setting up the Street University many people challenged Naomi and I with their assumptions of how a youth centre should be built and I’m proud to say that we are also heretics in our own field.

We do not pertain to hold the given truths around psychology and believe like Ted before us, believe that no young person, despite their history, is a write-off.

We’re coming up to our 6 months anniversary here at the Street University and I would like to offer a challenge to any of you who have not visited the centre but have promised to come out and volunteer your time.

Our family is becoming larger and stronger. Some of the young people who first visited us without jobs or homes are employed and living fruitful lives.

You need to see the Street University to believe it.

Before I pass you onto to Naomi I’d like to leave you with another quote from my grandfather Ted “I am a Protestant but I am also a Catholic. I am a Jew but I am also a Muslim. I am a Hindu but at the same time I am also Sikh. I am an Agnostic but also an Atheist. Because first and foremost I am a human being and no one in the world is a stranger to me.”

When we repeat that mantra today at the Street University, we mean it literally.

Warmest Regards and see you soon

Matt Noffs

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