The Smith Family Toy and Book Appeal refers to the collection from the public of toys and books for distribution by team members and volunteers at Christmas time to families whose children are participating in our Learning for Life program.
2023 Toy and Book Appeal
You may not know that in the past few years due to COVID restrictions, The Smith Family has not run the physical activation of our Toy and Book Appeal nationwide. Instead, eligible families around Australia received digital e-vouchers for their children participating in Learning for Life. This year’s Toy and Book activity (2023) will again see digital vouchers rolled out to eligible families nationally.
2024 Toy and Book Appeal
The Smith Family believe that education is one of the world’s most powerful change agents. This is why we help young Australians to overcome educational inequality caused by poverty, working with thousands of children and their families to empower them to unlock better futures for themselves through education. This has been a strategic priority for many years.
Given our core focus on education and our ambition to provide our Learning for Life program to more young Australians, we recently conducted a strategic review of our annual Toy and Book Appeal.
After extensive consultation with key stakeholders, including The Smith Family team members who work directly with families, we determined that we must prioritise helping children to achieve better educational outcomes for the long-term.
Unfortunately, there are one in six children growing up in disadvantage in Australia. Poverty is blocking their progress at every turn and directly impacting their educational outcomes.
Furthermore, the demand for our Learning for Life program outstrips what we can currently provide, and at the same time, our goal is to meet this growing demand by providing the program to 100,000 children by 2027. More children than ever need our help to overcome the daily challenges that prevent them from having the same opportunities as other children to achieve their best at school.
As such, December 2023 will be the last time that the Toy and Book Appeal will take place.
By redeploying the resources for the Toy and Book Appeal into our core Learning for Life program, we can help hundreds more children, in addition to the 60,000 young Australians we are already supporting through the program, to access extra learning and mentoring programs, delivering lasting and permanent benefits for them, their family and their communities.
We will continue to hold our annual Christmas Appeal to fund education programs for children, and our sponsors will also still be able to elect to provide a Christmas gift to their sponsored student via digital vouchers or physical gifts.
We remain steadfast in our mission to empower families and young Australians to unlock their potential through education, and we look forward to supporting more families and young people to harness the power of education.
We extend our warmest appreciation and gratitude to everyone who has supported the Toy and Book Appeal over the years, from our incredible volunteers, members of VIEW Clubs of Australia, donors, partners and our team members.
This year and beyond we will continue to hold our annual Christmas Appeal to fund educational programs for children, and our sponsors will also still be able to elect to provide a Christmas gift to their sponsored student via digital vouchers or physical gifts. Last year around 14,000 children in our Learning for Life program received a Christmas gift from their sponsor.
