Encouraging, Educating and Engaging Individuals Across Communities: The Smith Family’s Strategy and Programs

Simons R¹*

1. The Smith Family, Sydney, NSW, Australia

The Smith Family’s vision is to create a more caring, cohesive Australian community. We understand that to do this The Smith Family needs to work with and through others and engage individuals within their own communities. While our focus rests primarily with education, our strategy and broader programs provide opportunities for disadvantaged Australians to engage at a social, technological, economic and civic level.

Our major program, Learning for Life (LFL), currently supports over 22,000 disadvantaged Australian children and youth across more than fifty locations. Education Support Workers work within these communities to support LFL students and their families. Our mentoring programs assist students making the difficult transition between school and work; and The Smith Family’s community technology learning centres provide disadvantaged Australians of all ages with the opportunity to learn technology skills and connect with others.

In addition to technological literacy, The Smith Family offers reading and financial literacy programs. We are also actively involved in the assets based community development initiative, Communities for Children. These programs provide a forum for the civic engagement of more than 1,500 volunteers and for the involvement of businesses in corporate social responsibility.

Using an evidence based approach, this paper explores The Smith Family’s strategy and programs, which recognise that all individuals have assets and abilities that can be drawn upon to further strengthen and build capacity within their communities.

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