The Smith Family - Learning for Life



The Smith Family - Learning for Life

The vision and aims of the independent community organisation called The Smith Family – which are to assist financially disadvantaged families access education through a variety of mentoring, counselling and scholarships programmes – make it a highly committed and passionate social enterprise.

Says Camilla Delmage, a ‘Learning for Life’ worker with The Smith Family in Kwinana, Western Australia, “Our main focus is on children and their education. Better educated children make stronger families which, is turn, builds better communities.”

Camilla is passionate about her work.  “I can’t believe I’m doing the job I had always dreamed of,” she says. “I work with more than 100 families and about 235 students, ranging from pre-primary up to high school and beyond, providing assistance to those families who need it.”

“Sometimes it’s financial help, so that students can be included in excursions or can purchase books or uniforms, or maybe I can help by providing community links and networks; often it’s helping students with a whole range of tutoring and coaching programmes.”

“Basically I’m there to assist students develop their life skills; to encourage them to acquire the cognitive abilities they need to participate fully in society.”

“And it works,” Camilla enthuses. “I see the students growing increasingly confident while their parents become much more integrated into the community.”

Grandparents who have become primary care givers are of particular interest to ‘Learning for Life’ worker, Sherryl Coffey.

“Many, though by no means all, are Indigenous,” Sherryl explains, “and either because they had little schooling themselves, or it was so long ago, are unacquainted with the school system. So it’s important to help them get their grandchildren registered for school and to work at keeping the students in school… up to Year 12 if possible. And because many of them are elderly they often need the help of specialist outside programmes to assist with raising their grandchildren.”

“About once a month,” Sherryl continues, “a group of them come to The Smith Family premises in Kwinana for a coffee morning. They are a wonderful bunch of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous grandparents who give each other a lot of encouragement and help. They are really positive and I think it’s such a great privilege to be helping them and their grandchildren achieve a better quality of life based mainly around the children’s education.”