Urgent funding needed for education support programs to help disadvantaged children stay at school

Children’s education charity The Smith Family has launched its 2018 Winter Appeal to help thousands of disadvantaged young Australians break the cycle of poverty through vital support for their education.

Marking 30 years since the organisation shifted focus from emergency assistance to education support, The Smith Family needs to raise $4.1 million by 30 June to deliver life-changing learning and mentoring programs for nearly 10,000 children this year. With one in seven [1] Australian children and young people living below the poverty line, this support is more critical than ever.

The Smith Family’s CEO Dr Lisa O’Brien said: ^“It’s now 30 years since The Smith Family commenced our first education support program for children in need. At that time, we asked the families we were assisting in highly disadvantaged communities what kind of help they most wanted. Our research revealed the major concern for these families was the education of their children.

“Since then, with the support of the Australian community, we’ve been able to help thousands of children thrive in their education through a range of programs that begin in the early years and continue through to the tertiary level. In the last year alone, our work reached more than 120,000 disadvantaged young Australians, but the need is so much higher.”

Dr O’Brien said the extent of poverty in Australia is not well understood and that supporting children’s education over the long term is the most effective way to tackle this problem.

“The staggering fact is there are 1.1 million young Australians living below the poverty line today. We don’t always see the struggles faced by these children because poverty can be hidden. We hear of children pretending to be unwell so they don’t have to worry their parents with the cost of an excursion, or they’ll start skipping school because they’re struggling to keep up in class.

“That’s why we are calling on the Australian public to help us reach more children. The out-of-school learning and mentoring programs we provide give young people the skills and motivation to stay in school and see the value of finishing Year 12 to open up more opportunities for themselves. That little bit of extra support and encouragement can be life-changing for these children,” Dr O’Brien said.

Funds raised through The Smith Family’s Winter Appeal will help nearly 10,000 disadvantaged children access a range of literacy and numeracy programs – such as student2student, which helps young students improve their reading skills by pairing them with older ‘reading buddies’ – as well as after-school Learning Clubs and the iTrack online mentoring program.

“With the assistance of volunteer tutors, programs such as our Learning Clubs help improve students’ grades – and as their grades start to improve, so does their attendance and likelihood of completing Year 12. We know that if we can help students finish school, this in turn leads to better job prospects, the security of regular income and the skills to participate fully in society,” Dr O’Brien said.

“I urge the community to get behind our Winter Appeal and contribute to a better future for young Australians in need.”

Anyone wishing to donate to The Smith Family’s Winter Appeal can phone 1800 024 069 or visit thesmithfamily.com.au/winter

Read more about The Smith Family’s Learning and Mentoring Programs

The impact of poverty on children’s education:

• One in three children (32.6 per cent) from Australia’s most disadvantaged communities start school already behind in key learning areas, such as literacy and numeracy. [1]
• 42 per cent of disadvantaged students are proficient in digital skills compared to 72 per cent of their more affluent peers (Year 6) [2] and around one in three students supported by The Smith Family are without access to a computer or laptop that is connected to the internet at home.
• Only 60 per cent of young people from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds complete Year 12, compared to around 90 per cent of those from the highest socioeconomic backgrounds. [3]

Key outcomes from programs run by The Smith Family [4]:

• 96 per cent of students improved their reading ability because of the student2student program.
• 87 per cent of students agreed that going to a Learning Club helped them do better in class.
• 81 per cent of students agreed that their iTrack mentor helped them feel more confident about their future job, career or study options.