OUR LITERACY PROGRAMMES


Indigo Express Fund raises money and resources to support a number of established not-for-profit DGR (Deductible Gift Recipient) status literacy organisations that focus on providing literacy training, support and materials to Indigenous Australian young people.

 

News Alert: Based on the succsess of Indigo Express Fund and having a child involved with Philanthropy- and the overwhelming feedback we had from other parents and kids about being involved in Philanthropy - on Sunday 27th May 2012 we launched a new fund called Kids In Philanthropy ( www.kip.org.au )  which will focus on developing a social conscience and practice of giving in children for children. 

 

 

Literacy Programs

In May 2012 we launched the Lifelong Literacy Program  in partnership with the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE). The program is an collaboration between Indigo Epxress Fund and:

  1. National Centre of Indigenous Excellence  www.ncie.org.au
  2. MULTILIT  www.multilit.com
  3. Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation  www.alnf.org

We have sought the very best organisations in their field, NCIE from an Indigenous advocacy and excellence development perspective, MultiLit with an an unparalleled record in measurable literacy improvements in children and ALNF who have extensive experience in developing and delivering literacy programs to Indigenous people in regional and  remote communities.

 

December 2012 Update


On 15 December 2012, a Graduation Ceremony was held for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander kids from Tempe in NSW was held at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Redfern.

Donna Ingram conducted the Welcome to Country and Dr Anita Heiss addressed the audience noting how important it is to be able to read simply to function in society.

Cerificates of Merit were awarded to all children who had completed the NCIE Lifelong Literacy program funded by the Inidigo Express Fund.

Indigo read out her book, Indigo Solves the Pzuzle, to the other children, many of whom were deeply touched, having shared similar life experiences to Indigo.

The ceremony concluded with a brilliant song and dance session with a Torres Strait Islander women and children dance group.

It was an amazing experience for all involved.

 

August 2012 Update

 

To-date we have conducted literacy assessments for 40 primary school Indigenous children using the MultiLIt method.

We have also assessed 100 pre-school Indigenous children using the ALNF method.

Eight primary school children were invited to participate in MultiLit's online literacy training program. These children have two hours of one-on-one online literacy coaching twice a week for 20 weeks. This kids are now 10 weeks through the program.

In September we will be training 8-10 Indigenous and non-Indigenous early childhood teachers in the ALNF literacy course. This is a week long course which equips early childhood teachers with the skills to coach and tutor pre-school children in literacy. These teachers will then tutor and work with a number of the 100 pre-school children who have been assessed.

 

The Lifelong Literacy Program for Indigenous Children

The aim of the collaboration between Indigo Express and the NCIE has been to:

Create a best-practice, innovative literacy program based on research-informed and proven methodologies, evidence based impact measurement and a sustainable operations model that significantly improves the literacy competency of Indigenous children.

We will be assessing Indigenous childrens' literacy abilities and then funding individualised programs including one-on-one online tutoring of the children in both local and remote communities. We hope to assess at least 200 children during 2012.

 

The program involves:


1. Literacy testing all Indigenous children who come to the NCIE from around the country on NASCA camps using the MultiLit assessment methodology.

2. Children who are assessed as having challenges in literacy will be offered to enter the Online Literacy Program.


3. The Online Literacy Program is a highly innovative, newly developed MultiLit application where the children will be tutored over the internet by a MultiLit tutor based at Macquarie University. The children can be anywhere in the country as long as they have a computer and internet connection.


4. The children will be tutored three times a week in one-on-one sessions for two terms. We expect their reading levels to improve by at about 12 months (in chronological age) over this time.


5. Tutors and mentors from NASCA will be trained in the MultiLit method so that they can support the children when back in community.


6. Literacy tutoring will also be provided to children who come to the NCIE for After School care.


7. We will also be using the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) program to do intensive training of local Sydney Indigenous pre-school teachers so that they can tutor literacy in pre-schoolers.


8. We will have a Social Impact PhD student measuring the effectiveness of the program.


9. Indigo Express is providing the full Seed funding for the program.

 

For those wishing to donate to this program (all donations are tax deductable), a donation of AU$100 will provide a full literacy assessment and report and AU$6,000 will fund one child's assessment and an intensive 2 term (20 week) one-on-one tutoring program with a qualified literacy coach. This intense period should improve a child's literacy ability typically by 18-24months. i.e., if the child had a reading ability of 2 years below their age level (e.g. a 10 year old with the reading age of an 8 year old), then this program over 20 weeks should bring them up to their correct age literacy level.

 

Please contact us for more specific information on the different programmes.

Contact details:

Dr Catriona Wallace

cwallace@fifthquadrant.com.au

Ph: +61 412 181 284