Community and Education
Community
Mission Australia
Mission Australia (MA) is one of Australia's leading not-for-profit national charities and community service organisations. MA has been in operation for 150 years and more than 550 services throughout metropolitan, rural and regional Australia.
For the third year, The Qantas Foundation continues to support Mission Australia. This year, the Foundation has provided funding in support of Circles of Care. Designed to give children a good start in life, Circles of Care provides intensive support and links families with community services to help them overcome personal and financial challenges. Based in the school communities of White Rock and Yarrabah in the Cairns Southern Corridor, the program primarily aims to support children who exhibit behaviours indicative of underlying personal, school or family problems.
As we continue to build on our relationship with MA, employees across the nation rallied together for the National Winter Appeal to collect and donate hundreds of packs of toiletry items for distribution through Mission Australia's homelessness services. Our donations were collected from Mascot HQ and presented to Mission Australia's Missionbeat at a homeless week event. The lunchtime event featured a performance by the Sydney Street Choir and a soup kitchen style lunch. We look forward to the 2012 Winter Appeal and sharing the spirit of care!
The Qantas Foundation Social Impact Lecture
The Lecture is joint initiative with The Centre for Social Impact (CSI) to support corporate social responsibility and a sustainable not-for-profit sector. This event is designed to promote greater understanding of the way in which the not-for-profit sector and business can work together for a more engaged and inclusive society.
Delivered by The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Member for Griffith, the 2011 lecture, 'Bringing Accountability to Responsibility: The new challenge for Corporate Social Responsibility' focussed on the benefits of a partnership between government, business and civil society on corporate social responsibility and how such partnerships provided the most effective response to many of the challenges and opportunities confronted locally and abroad. Guests were entertained with a performance by the Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts.
Previous speakers include Global CEO of Fauna and Flora International, Mark Rose, the Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity at KPMG International, Lord Michael Hastings CBE and Mr John Elkington, Founding Partner and Director of Volans.
Education
Australian Business and Community Network
The Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) is a partnership of highly committed national business leaders and companies working on mentoring and coaching programs. The ABCN's focus is education and improving opportunities for students and schools that are most in need. It also supports educators and engages businesses to build stronger communities.
As a member of the ABCN, the Qantas Foundation participates in programs that mentor students; provide support and mentoring for school principals, and support reading and literacy for primary school students.
Spark Reading Program
The primary aim of the SPARK Reading Program is to improve the literacy skills children who would ordinarily never have access to one-on-one reading support. The program has been proven to support increased literacy and other positive outcomes for children who participate, and it also gives Qantas employees a great opportunity to get involved and support child learning.
In 2010, the Qantas Foundation facilitated Qantas staff involvement in three SPARK Reading Programs at local schools.
- Term 2: Qantas Graduates mentored Year 2 students from Chifley Public School.
- Term 3: Qantas corporate staff mentored Year 2 and Year 3 students from Matraville Soldiers Settlement School.
- Term 4: Qantas Business Information Services and corporate staff mentored students from Chifley Public School.
"Being able to engage a child in reading and pass on the idea that reading can be something from which a lot of enjoyment can be gained (and not just a chore) was particularly rewarding. Although such a small contribution to the child's education, having them sound out and learn new words was both an achievement for the child and made me feel good about being there to assist."
Visit ABCN for more information about their educational programs.
Career Choice Day 2010
Career Choice Day aims to connect students from disadvantaged schools with some of Australia's highest profile companies. It is specifically designed to broaden students' awareness of the career choices available to them and to expose them to diverse career journeys of successful people.
The 2010 Qantas Career Choice Day saw the Qantas Foundation host a group of Year 10 and 11 students from Alexandria Park Community School at Qantas' state-of-the-art facility, the Centre of Service Excellence. In a high-energy and interactive format, students learned more about the diverse range of career opportunities available at Qantas and were inspired by keynote speaker Colin Hart, Q Catering Food Production Manager, who started his career at Qantas as an apprentice.
Visit ABCN for further details.
Partners in Learning
The Partners in Learning program links business and educational professionals so that they can share experiences, solve problems and explore leadership challenges together. The program provides a unique opportunity to make a difference, not only to the individual partners, but also to the schools and businesses involved and the wider community.
Under this program, two senior Qantas Executives have formed mentoring relationships with the Principals of Chifley Public School (NSW) and Belmont City College (WA).
Visit ABCN for more information about the Partners in Learning program.
