Literacy for Life Foundation has received four years of funding to continue with its successful community-led model in Far North Queensland under the Australian Government’s new Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) First Nations Program.
The funding enables Literacy for Life to support four communities across Far North Queensland to run community-led Adult Literacy Campaigns, meaning up to 500 more First Nations adults can improve their English language and literacy skills. Lifting literacy leads to positive change across a range of areas, including health, education, employment, justice, community governance and self-determination.
In Yarrabah, where the local First Nations Campaign team has been successfully running literacy and digital literacy training since 2021, the new funding will allow continuation of the excellent results achieved to date (see University of New England’s independent evaluation).
The Foundation is now also supporting local community leaders to launch Campaigns in Mapoon, Mossman and Cairns.
Early work with these communities has involved establishing community governance groups who will advise and shape the Campaign, ongoing recruitment of local First Nations staff, and spreading the word about the Campaign.
This work is an essential element of the community-led model, which has been shown to be highly effective in raising literacy levels when compared to a more mainstream approach.
“Something like this in the community would be great. It’s the older generations who miss out, who we’d like to help change. This is so needed because people fall through the cracks out here.” – Community Member.
The Don’t Take It As Read parliamentary inquiry included a specific recommendation to scale up the work of the Literacy for Life Foundation. Broader findings from the inquiry were considered in the development of the SEE First Nations Program which provides a competitive grant opportunity open to eligible First Nations organisations.
“The Albanese Government is proud to partner with Literacy for Life to deliver this readiness training project for First Nations peoples,” says Minister for Skills and Training, the Hon Andrew Giles MP
“Through the SEE First Nations program, we are partnering with community organisations to design and deliver projects that remove barriers, so all people have equal opportunity and access to life-changing education and training. I look forward to seeing the positive impacts this program will have on Australian communities,” says Minister Giles.
The Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) First Nations Program is funded by the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.