Abstracts & Presentation Summaries - Department of Health

eads the writer’s work and offers carefully worded comments that may include
hints on how to make the writing more effective.
Each year a piece of writing from every participant is published in Recollections.
A copy of Recollections is sent to the Archival Section of the State Library, as well as
local libraries, private homes etc.
The LWCC is the underpinning for our Telelink Writing Classes. Our volunteer
encouragers provide a broad spectrum of expertise – fresh and off beat ideas for
topics, (for example, Passion, Laughter,) expertise in editing, proof reading of scripts
and innovative ways of taking the projects into the broader community. For example,
writing short performance scripts edited down from work inspired by Telelink.
The outward turning of the mind positively affects the body.
Best of all we participants forget our illness, disabilities, nobody feels patronised, a rare
experience for some of us, we are equally valued as people. We are ordinarily denied any
educational access because all of us are isolated, unable to get to conventional classes.
Telelink Writing Classes are not a luxury but a necessity
Telelink is the term used to describe the linking together of individuals via their
home phones to form a group where eight writers, plus the facilitator and tutor,
can speak with each other for 45 minutes from the comfort of their own home.
Each term is composed of five classes, fortnightly, at a prearranged time and date
and lasting 45 minutes.
Our Telelink Writing Classes are highly structured. The topic for discussion is sent to
the writer prior to each link.
Telelink Writing Classes were developed in response to a need to have immediate
feedback for writers isolated through age, illness, geographic isolation etc.
We wanted to create a supportive, friendly and informative environment and
Telelink has filled this gap. From the letters and phone calls we receive, it’s obvious
that feelings of isolation and lack of self worth are rapidly replaced by a sense of
accomplishment and an understanding that everyone has a story worth telling.
Another of the many outcomes is the mutual support that is so generously offered
during the links. Writers develop friendships — exchanging stories, letters,
phone calls that continue when the link has finished. It’s important to mention that
although many of our writers suffer from chronic illness they rarely refer to it during
our time together on Telelink.
For this forum on ‘planned activity,’ the topic for discussion will be Through the
Window. Each writer will have already written their first assignment and sent it in to
the facilitator – myself, to be photocopied and posted on to the tutor for reading and
discussion on the link. It’s the first class, four more will follow. Liliana Parrella and I
will read an abbreviated script of a typical Telelink so that you may easily
understand how it works.
Contact details:
Julia Ward, Coordinator Life Writing Correspondence Course
Liliana Parrella, Coordinator, Hawthorn Community Education Project
PO Box 2210, Hawthorn VIC 3122. – Ph: (03) 9819 5771 – Fax: (03) 9819 5102
E-mail: hcepinc@internex.net.au
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