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Our learning support and mentoring programs in 90 Australian communities directly help children in need achieve their goals through education.
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Through the Archives

Executive team

12 September 2022

Episode 1: Foundation

Episode 2: Fundraising

Episode 3: Work

Episode 4: Education

With 2022 marking The Smith Family’s centenary year, we’ve opened our archives to take a closer look at the organisation’s history and impact. Take a fascinating journey through some of what we found, with Smith Family Ambassador Sarah Harris and CEO Doug Taylor.

Explore the organisation’s foundation story and the early years. Hear about all the innovative ways that The Smith Family has worked with children, families and communities to help them through crises and disadvantage.

Did you know that The Smith Family built a hospital for recuperating children? Or that it was a pioneer in areas like aged care and recycling? Discover some of the quirky fundraising activities that The Smith Family has undertaken. And, of course, they look at the big change, when The Smith Family shifted focus away from providing welfare support to concentrating on supporting the education of children in need.

As former CEO, Elaine Henry, who drove that period of transition, recalls: “People didn't ‘get’ education. What is this welfare organisation trying to get into education? No-one was interested in education … they didn't know what you were talking about.”

While the change may not have been widely or warmly embraced straightaway, it fitted perfectly with The Smith Family practice of working with communities, families and children to meet a need, and enable transformation change. “It wasn't just about the student,” Ms Henry says. “It was also about the family.

It was about the communities in which they lived. And The Smith Family could only work with and through others. It was not about The Smith Family on its own, it was about what The Smith Family could bring, working together, in the community to provide opportunities.”

For any organisation to survive for as long as The Smith Family, it needs to adapt to changing needs in the community. But the evolution of The Smith Family is a fascinating tale of both change and consistency. At its core, The Smith Family has maintained the founding philosophy that was behind its creation in 1922 – working to improve the lives of children in need.

The journey covers a time of great change spanning the Depression, World War II and the post-war recovery, modernisation and the digital revolution.

The Smith Family’s strong foundation values allow today’s organisation to support thousands of children and their families through education.

But none of it could have been achieved without creating connections between the families and children we work with, and the communities who can help provide support: donors, sponsors, volunteers, schools, community partners, all the other partners The Smith Family works with, and every customer who ever bought anything at a White Elephant store.

So, join Sarah Harris and Doug Taylor as they explore this rich heritage and uncover plenty of thought-provoking and surprising gems.