Coopers Brewery Foundation supports ALNF with $150,000 grant to boost early years
The Sector > Quality > Coopers Brewery Foundation supports ALNF with $150,000 grant to boost early years

Coopers Brewery Foundation supports ALNF with $150,000 grant to boost early years

by Freya Lucas

March 25, 2020

The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) is the latest recipient of funding from the Coopers Brewery Foundation, a non-operational fundraising arm of the brewery.

 

The ALNF is dedicated to raising language, literacy and numeracy standards in Australia and raises funds to develop, implement and sustain innovative projects for individuals, families and communities.

 

Funds received from the Foundation will be used by ALNF for their Early Language & Literacy (EL&L) Program, which equips educators, parents and community members with the knowledge and tools required to work with their own children to develop foundational language and literacy skills.

 

At the heart of the program is an ASQA accredited Certificate IV (10028NAT) course which combines speech and language pathology and early years education best practice to provide training in direct, explicit instruction in pre-writing, pre-phonics, oral language and vocabulary development.

 

ALNF will receive $50,000 in funding each year for three years under the Coopers Brewery Foundation’s Sustainable Giving Program, with the EL&L program to be rolled out in the Central Goldfields, one of the most disadvantaged areas of Victoria.

 

Coopers Brewery Foundation Chair Melanie Cooper said ALNF had been chosen from 63 applications shortlisted to 10 in the education sector.

 

“The Governors believe the work by the ALNF will have a significant effect on the long-term educational outcomes for the children it supports, which in turn will have a major positive impact on their future,” she said.

 

The Co-Founder and Executive Director of the ALNF, Kim Kelly, said the organisation was delighted to be partnering with Coopers Brewery.

 

“Together, we are helping to give every child the opportunity to write their own bright future,” she said, explaining that the funding would allow the organisation to train and mentor more than 30 educators, parents and community members in the EL&L program. 

 

Through the program about 650 at-risk children are taught the skills required to engage in school and gain full access to future educational and employment opportunities.

 

The project will run until November 2022, during which time executive and non-executive trainers from ALNF will visit the Central Goldfields to train and mentor participants in the EL&L course.

 

“The Central Goldfields has been identified as an area with entrenched disadvantage, including health and developmental issues, trans-generational illiteracy and educational disengagement,” Ms Kelly said.

 

“This program aims to empower adults to work with children to create sustainable, transformative and systemic change that is driven by the local community.”

 

To learn more about the work of the ALNF in the early years, please see here. For information about the Coopers Brewery Foundation, please visit their website here

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