Our experience with the Future Foundations program

David1David Rothstadt, Principal of Noble Park Primary School tells of their experience with the Future Foundations pilot community program last year.

Schools are in a privileged place when it comes to the education of young people. The good news is that they don’t have to do it alone. There are a range of organisations which cater for the needs of young people outside school hours, but very few target disadvantaged talented youth.

Future Foundations has developed an innovative program to engage young people in new learning while fostering their talent. Schools need only provide the ‘clients’ and space for the program to run successfully.

‘We live in a society where – despite widespread concerns about children and teenagers – the vast majority of adults are not actively involved in the lives of young people outside of their own families. …. Without the attention of many adults in all parts of their lives and community, young people are deprived of important sources of guidance, nurture, care and socialization.’ (Scales, Benson and Roehlkepartain, Grading Grown Ups 2002)

This rare opportunity provides talented students, as identified by the school, access to mentors in their artistic field of interest and also personal mentors. With this highly motivated team they can start to build the capacity and vision for a rewarding future.

What does it look like? Imagine students going on field trips to exciting and stimulating art spaces, land and city scapes with a project in mind. They build relationships with their mentors, who more often than not outnumber the students. They work cooperatively in a creative space, which lends itself to exploration and innovation with time to test ideas and develop new skills.

From our first program we have seen students who have grown their skills and in a short space of time produced high quality artistic products. Equally as impressive has been the personal growth in the areas of general connectedness, leadership, confidence and aspiration.

The quality of the work the students produced was outstanding. Our students would never have the chance to access the highly skilled and committed business and artistic mentors without Future Foundations. It has made a difference in their lives, which they and their parents have articulated.

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