By almost all socioeconomic indicators, Australia’s Indigenous young people are the most disadvantaged group in the county. The majority of Indigenous children in regional and remote areas struggle to read and write, and fall well below the national literacy benchmarks. The educational outcomes of Indigenous children are closely related to their opportunities for further education and employment. Early intervention and support in literacy and numeracy skills is vital to keep Indigenous children engaged in education.
The Aboriginal Literacy Foundation (ALF) is not-for profit and provides literacy programs and opportunities for Indigenous young people through education and community based initiatives such as the Books for Learning Program, Literacy & Heritage Camps, Literacy Resource Packs and Support Services, Literacy Tutoring and Testing, Research, and Evaluation.
We at Sherpa Insurance are proud supporters of our charity partner the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation (ALF). The ALF is passionate about providing quality education to all Aboriginal children across Australia. ALF’s programs are reaching some 60,000 individuals, families and community members, and they are working towards creating more programs for their cause. Just recently, ALF launched their Digital Literacy Hub (DLH) project. The DLH aims to enrich the learning experience of Aboriginal children and their families by introducing a range of digital educational resources such as eBooks and webinars.
Article from Alfabet, the ALF’s official newsletter
The Aboriginal Literacy Foundation is extremely proud to announce the arrival of its long awaited digital education and resources platform, The Aboriginal Digital Literacy Hub (DLH). This project aims to bring to one interactive, digital platform a range of assets, networks, libraries, schooling resources, tools and portals that will make the educational experience of our Indigenous students and their families a much easier and more interactive one. This rich learning environment will make available the following:
- A huge number of eBooks – targeted towards children aged 1-11 across a range of reading levels; some will contain audio. Our eBook library will also contain a huge range of Indigenous books; designed and written specifically for an Indigenous audience.
- Literacy and numeracy games – designed to extract engagement and proficiency in reading and competency in spelling
- Educational resources – easy to download forms and puzzles designed to engage and challenge students for literacy & numeracy progression.
- Testing and evaluation – A program will be designed to challenge and test students’ skills in spelling, maths and general knowledge.
- A webinar format – specifically for appointments between students, tutors and mentors. This engaging format will allow for more chat and study assistance in our aim to deliver more direct tutorials and mentoring to our students and their families.
- A direct portal to Indigenous employment opportunities – this portal will reflect at any one time nearly 100 vacancies for positions in Industry, Government and within the Education sector, not to mention a range of available traineeships.
- Academic Links and Support – this aspect of the DLH will allow personal and individualised assistance to ALF students and families when they are accessing or reviewing their options for Higher Education.
- Health, Finance and Wellbeing Support – This link will allow direct and individual support for Indigenous students and families seeking support in non-academic areas of life.
- A direct link with Indigemail – This link will reflect a continuum of news and vacant positions for Indigenous candidates nationwide.
- A unique repository of Indigenous statistics and facts – we hope that the DLH will once and for all assist students, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, to find out about the Australian Aboriginal population, their culture, their reality in the past and today, and the challenges that they face. This link will include up to date statistics.
All of these attributes are designed to assist and aide students in being competitive and successful, and to stay in school longer to ensure they access the opportunities that come with finishing school, including higher education and/or employment. This online asset is a generational game changer. We hope that through continual improvement and communication, we will assist thousands of ALF students and family members in their academic and personal development, so that they will change (once and for all) the shocking statistics of disadvantage that hold back Indigenous Australia from prosperity and self-determination.
The DLH is available by direct link from the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation’s official website at www.aboriginalliteracyfoundation.org. Again, the DLH and all that it offers is FREE to all registered students or ALF members.
For further information, please go to www.aboriginalliteracyfoundation.org