Grants make education more accessible for more kids

Variety WA's EduKids grants have reached some of the state's most disadvantaged children across Western Australia over the past four years.

Recipients of the state government’s WA Student Assistance Payment are being encouraged to donate it to the Variety WA EduKids program to ensure the most disadvantaged children can access school supplies.

The annual program helps to cover the cost of back-to-school equipment with grants of up to $1,500 per primary school and $2,500 per high school. The grants help at least ten students with the cost of uniforms, school bags, water bottles, lunchboxes, textbooks and booklist items.

“EduKids empowers each school to determine what is most needed in their specific community, whether that is stationary packs for new primary school students or purchasing some uniforms so all students can feel included in the school community,” Variety WA CEO Chris Chatterton said.

“The grants level the playing field and reduce some of the back-to-school financial pressures experienced by some families.”

Last year, Variety WA supported 100 government primary schools and 60 government high schools, which equates to one-fifth of public schools across the state.

In 2023, Mr Chatterton covered more than 16,000 kilometres to visit a number of the grant recipient schools all across WA from Augusta to Marble Bar, Esperance to One Arm Point.

“What I saw and experienced made me even more determined to redouble our efforts to continue the EduKids grants and to reach even more kids across the state," he said.

“Delivering EduKids via the schools showed us there are a significant number of children across the state who are having a really hard time and experiencing an extreme level of disadvantage and many of them are located in remote areas."

Targeting schools helps to shed light on some of the key local challenges some children may be experiencing in remote areas. "Understanding the unique needs in a community can be challenging, which is why the local schools’ knowledge and connection with the kids is intrinsic to the success of the EduKids program,” Mr Chatterton said.

“By partnering with the Department of Education we have been able to work together with WA schools to help identify the children who would benefit the most from the EduKids grants and ensure trackable results and targeted funding. We know the funding is being spent on the students for specific school items that they require to participate in class."

Mr Chatterton explained that one in six children in WA are experiencing disadvantage in some form. "Education is a key factor in helping to break people out of disadvantage. Disadvantage needs to be addressed on an ongoing basis, supporting those children who are most in need and we would love to work more closely with the WA government on this initiative,” he said.

“Some of the communities I visited were traditionally Indigenous and incredibly remote. Accessibility isn’t always easy, and access is often via unsealed roads that can be dangerous and unreliable in certain weather conditions."

The program has expanded from helping individual applicants to entire schools in remote and disadvantaged areas to reach more children in need. 

“We were concerned that some children, particularly in remote areas, may be missing out on assistance due to the barriers that individual applicants could face under the application process, such as reliable internet access, literacy and the stigma of reaching out for help. We looked at ways to make the applications more inclusive and have greater reach for the most disadvantaged children,” Mr Chatterton explained.

Variety WA is expanding the program further to reach more children in disadvantaged situations, and aims to redouble the efforts this year, with Mr Chatterton explaining that demand for the charity's assistance has increased 48 per cent in the past 12 months.

"With the cost-of-living crisis this will only increase in coming years. Variety is endeavouring to secure more funding support to expand the program on an ongoing basis as currently the need is far greater than our current resources allow," he said. 

“There are more than 800 government schools in WA and if we could offer the same level of funding to every public school in the state each and every year it would only cost about less than $1.3 million. If the local business leaders in each community came together to support EduKids we could easily raise the required amount every year."

Charlie Bell Scholarship

Ronald McDonald House Charity's Charlie Bell Scholarship Program helps young people get back on their education path and reach their goals.

The scholarship awards one-off grants of up to $5,000 to young people aged 15 to 20 years, to assist towards their tertiary education.

The program awards up to two scholarships per year and the scholarship money can be used for books, supplies, equipment such as laptops or tablets, apprenticeship tools, or university or school fees, to help young people get back on their path to success.

Last year's recipients will use their grants to pursue studies in an advanced diploma at TAFE and a law degree at the University of Notre Dame. Both recipients used the Ronald McDonald Learning Program, which provides one-on-one tutoring of up to 40 hours for school aged kids (kindergarten to year 12) and aims to bridge the educational gap that comes with missed schooling due to illness or injury.

The RMHC national program commenced in 2006 and has helped hundreds of students aged 15–20 years further their education after suffering from an illness or injury. 

The scholarship was named after Charlie Bell, a former managing director of McDonald’s Australia and president and chief executive officer of the global McDonald’s system, before passing away from cancer.