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24,000 extra students to benefit from new funding to improve their educational outcomes

26 June 2016

The Coalition’s commitment of $48 million to support a proven Smith Family educational program is an investment in the futures of thousands of disadvantaged children and young people across Australia, says national children’s education charity The Smith Family.

“The Smith Family welcomes the Coalition’s funding commitment of $48 million for our Learning for Life program,” said Dr Lisa O’Brien, CEO of The Smith Family. “This funding would enable The Smith Family to offer our educational support program to an additional 24,000 disadvantaged children living in communities across Australia and improve their educational outcomes.”

The program is currently providing 34,000 highly-disadvantaged children with targeted educational assistance throughout their school years and is having a significantly positive impact on their educational outcomes.

Research shows that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are much more likely to have poorer educational outcomes than those from more advantaged backgrounds.

However, with support from Learning for Life, seven out of ten disadvantaged young people on the program are completing Year 12, a result that will boost their long-term employment and social participation outcomes.

Since 2012, The Smith Family’s support has enabled over 6,500 disadvantaged young Australians to finish Year 12. In 2015, more than four-in-five (84 percent) former Learning for Life students were engaged in employment, education or training, a year after leaving the program.

Learning for Life can start in the first year of school and run through to the completion of tertiary education. It provides highly-disadvantaged children and young people with long-term support such as financial help for education essentials, plus a tailored range of out-of-school programs including literacy and numeracy, learning clubs, mentoring and career activities. As parental engagement is critical for a child’s learning, the program also equips parents with skills, knowledge, confidence and resources to positively engage in their child’s development.

“Educational attainment is an important predictor of a person’s future employment, income, health and welfare prospects,” Dr O’Brien said. “Our research shows that our highly targeted Learning for Life program is having a very positive impact on disadvantaged children’s educational outcomes. It is delivering outcomes beneficial to the long-term economic and social wellbeing of young people and Australia as a whole.”

“The funding commitment announced today would enable The Smith Family to reach thousands more young Australians with our unique solution to the problem of intergenerational disadvantage and help us deliver lasting change and positive outcomes, not only for children in need, but also for our nation,” said Dr O’Brien.