The article, ‘Leaders in the Civic Engagement Movement: April 2015,’ (ed. Hoyt and Rowe) profiles Charles Sturt University and the University of Western Sydney and outlines the growth of the Refugee Action Support Program as a community partnership. An extract from the article can be found below:
The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) was established in 1999 with a commitment to improving literacy and numeracy standards in Australia by developing and facilitating projects providing educational initiatives, training delivery and engagement in research. As a national charity, the Foundation is a vehicle through which members of the community and organizations can join together to help break the cycle of poor literacy.
Being aware of the University of Western Sydney’s (UWS) reputation for civic engagement, Eric Brace, Executive Educational Advisor of the ALNF reached out to staff at the university to discuss the possibilities of establishing a sustainable partnership to help young people of refugee background in Western Sydney. In 2006, the ALNF and the New South Wales Department of Education and Training as well as representatives of the UWS developed a steering committee in order to establish the Refugee Action Support Program, a program through which pre-service (trainee) teachers are recruited to provide additional literacy and language support for young refugees. In 2007, the program was formally launched.
Each semester since then, university students (the “tutors”) have been able to acquire academic credits by volunteering 60 hours of their time for this community engagement opportunity with schools throughout the local area.
According to Eric, “We want students of refugee background to receive additional language, literacy, learning and cultural assistance so as to better engage in their studies. We also want to increase the capacity of our graduate teachers to know the civic role of schools.” Among the success stories, a university student from a refugee background was able to continue his higher education in mechanical engineering. After the completion of his degree he said, “The Refugee Action Support (RAS) tutors helped and encouraged me all the time, with essays and assignments, and taught me how to cope.”
Over the years, the program has grown significantly. With the assistance of UWS, the ALNF was able to replicate the program in rural locations through a partnership with Charles Sturt University. The program, which initially focused its support for high school aged students, was expanded into primary schools in 2010. More recently, tutors have been recruited from other faculty areas, such as social work and speech pathology.
“We started with a small initiative but we grew over time. Case studies and stories of success have shown how effective the RAS program can be and have provided further support to improving the program initiative,” Eric says.
From 2007 to the present, a staggering number of university students – over 1,500 tutors – have volunteered their time to assist children and young people of refugee background settle into school in local communities.
With both passion and experience on the subject, Eric explains, “There is valuable knowledge in our schools and in our community organizations, which can add value to the depth of learning that occurs in higher education. Universities should be open to this knowledge, and communities should be proactive in sharing this knowledge, experience and expertise.”
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