The Coopers Brewery Foundation will donate $150,000 to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) over the next three years to support its Early Language & Literacy Project (EL&L) in Victoria’s Central Goldfields.
Central Goldfields has been recognised as one of Victoria’s disadvantaged areas, where the funding will help the ALNF train and mentor around 30 educators, parents and community members through its EL&L program.
The program aims to help 650 at-risk children, where they are taught skills required to engage in school, as well as gain access to future educational and employment opportunities.
Coopers Brewery Foundation chair Melanie Cooper said ALNF had been chosen from 63 applications shortlisted to 10 in the youth edutcation 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,” said Cooper.
ALNF co-founder and executive director Kim Kelly said she was delighted to be partnering with Coopers Brewery to give children the opportunity to write their own bright future.
“The Central Goldfields has been identified as an area with entrenched disadvantage, including health and developmental issues, trans-generational illiteracy and educational disengagement,” 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.”
The project will run until November 2022, and is one of three organisations under the foundation’s Sustainable Giving Program, which supports one each in the areas of health/aged care/medical research, youth education and family/community support.
