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The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program boosted thanks to Affinity’s support
Freya Lucas
Mar 20, 2024
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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) provider Affinity Education has given a welcome boost to The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program in the first year of its three year partnership, with the number of children sponsored by Affinity growing by almost 20 per cent to 244.
Under the partnership agreement, each Affinity Education centre is allocated one sponsored child. Every time a new education centre is opened, another child is sponsored.As well as supporting the Learning for Life program, Affinity’s partnership is having an impact across The Smith Family as a whole, as reflected in the statistics for the first year of partnership: First Year Partnership Impact
- Learning for Life scholarship program – 244 students
- Digital Learning Essentials – 9 students
- Future Seekers program – 2 students
- Learning Clubs – 8 students
- Passport program – 2 students
- student2student program – 1 student
- iTrack mentoring program – 1 Affinity volunteer mentor
The team and children at every Affinity centre are sent information about their sponsored student and encouraged to send supporting and helpful messages.
The initiative, Affinity Education Group CEO Tim Hickey said, has been warmly embraced by staff and children.
"We know many of our centres directly communicated with their sponsored child last year, and more have already commenced this in 2024," he said.
For Emma Niceski, who is the Assistant Centre Manager at Papilio Early Learning Robina, these engagements have been beneficial for the children at the centre.
"We have encouraged children to write to our sponsored child, Beau, and they will continue to do this throughout the year," Ms Niceski said.
"We are hoping Beau might also write back to us!"
The program, Mr Hickey believes, is a powerful example of the impact that early learning providers can have on communities.
The Smith Family CEO Doug Taylor thanked Affinity's teams for participating, adding that writing to sponsored students was often the most rewarding part of the sponsorship journey."It's a very real reminder of the difference the sponsorship is making to the child," Mr Taylor said."Every sponsorship gives a child the opportunity to make the most of their education and empowers them to create their future.
"It's been wonderful to see how engaged Affinity centres have been with their sponsored students, and we hope this will continue as the partnership grows in 2024."
Learn more about The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program here.
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