Yellow Shirts Day

Yellow Shirts Day is a whole community event. Community members can show their support by wearing yellow and demonstrating the importance of school attendance.

RSAS team members are known as ‘Yellow Shirts’ and they work in each community to help families and children get to school every day, Monday to Friday. They are community members who believe in education as a way to create a better life for all Tiwi.

Yellow Shirts need to remain impartial. They cannot get involved with complex issues that may impact their relationships with families. They need to maintain the trust of families within their communities.

Schools:

Yellow Shirts meet regularly with schools to discuss solutions to address non-attendance. Each solution is appropriate to the needs of the child and his or her family.

Families:

Families can talk to Yellow Shirts about any problems they are having that is impacting their children’s attendance at school. They are there to offer guidance and help families get the right support.

Families are encouraged to attend parenting workshops that can help them learn more about healthy routines and how to deal with children’s behavioural problems. For example, families need to make sure all children have a good night sleep so they can be up and ready to learn each day.

Students:

Yellow Shirts are people you can trust and talk to about your problems. They can find ways to help if you are feeling sad, angry or bullied. They are also there to help celebrate your achievements.

Community services:

All services are welcome to talk to our RSAS staff who can help promote the programs and services available to Tiwi families. Our RSAS staff are local community members so they can help locate families and provide guidance for culturally appropriate engagement.