g-oz has been delivering successful and engaging Community Programs in Halls Creek since 2010 and Carnarvon since 2012. We wish to strengthen and deepen our program in these communities from within: we’re looking to the next generation in order to do this.
We aim to design and deliver a formal and bespoke Leadership Development Program in Halls Creek and Carnarvon. With the long-term aim being to create employment pathways for and increase employability of young women, we will recruit school-aged trainees to participate in this structured leadership program.
Initially acting as role models to younger students, over time, these teenaged leaders will grow into young women who can engage with paid traineeships and learn to deliver the Community Program content on an ongoing basis.
This project aims to address Closing the Gap targets, providing increased opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians across key social indicators such as halving the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade.
Achievable, relevant education and employment pathways are few for girls and young women in remote communities. Women talk about ‘shame’ which is a term - girls in particular – use to express their embarrassment, their lack of confidence or fear of standing out.
Women in the community understand ‘shame’ and they want to help girls to overcome their fears by leading by example. They also comment on the importance of sustained intercommunal relationships, particularly because relationships with teachers are short-lived.
Twelve years of building the g-oz program in Halls Creek and ten years in Carnarvon has seen the dismantling of some ‘shame’ in the classroom and at school. While the outcomes have been powerful, we believe it will be further magnified when girls and young women in Halls Creek have mentors and role models from their own community, with similar backgrounds and life experiences.
Countless conversations with community leaders and Aboriginal and Islander Education Officers (AIEO) also make clear the fact that multigenerational role-modelling is highly valued by the Girls from Oz communities, particularly by women.
Our program does just this, equipping young women with the skills to make informed choices about their careers, leadership capabilities and ‘job readiness’.
This new program will build the confidence and skills of teenaged trainees to a new level and they will then become relatable role models for the younger school children.
A program logic will be developed that describes the program aims and the activities undertaken to achieve those aims. A research methodology called Most Significant Change will form the main framework for the evaluation.
We wish to undertake the following work:
•Assess and document the achievements of the program
•Collaborate with participants to create evidence based best practice procedures
•Develop an ongoing program of evaluation
Our main piece of evaluation will consist of collecting stories of change from the people who have been involved in or who closely observed the program. These stories will then be used in a story selection activity to identify which changes were most commonly experienced and which is deemed most significant by stakeholders. The stories themselves and the themes of change that come from them help us to understand the program’s impact and value for the communities.
In the short term, the quantitative measures will be the number of girls and young women we can engage in this program. Longer term, we will track indicators such as girls' attendance at school, high school completion rates, and pathways into further education (vocational or tertiary) and employment. The tangible outcome can be seen at the end of the year-long training program for the trainees and the mentees, but moreover, can be collected year on year to witness the journey of the girls into young women and leaders.
Girls from Oz creates life changing opportunities for Indigenous girls and young women in regional and remote towns and communities.
We aim to improve educational and employment outcomes for girls and young women through high quality performing arts education and travel programs. We work closely with our community and school partners to shape our classes and curriculum and ensure we’re contributing to the community’s long-term goals.
Each year we visit our five program locations four times. For one week each school term we deliver performing arts workshops and always aim to perform at school assemblies or local events. We also offer an annual Travel Program to a capital city. We invite the most engaged girls to travel with us for a week of educational and vocational experiences. Navigating the big city in a supported environment helps girls adjust to an inevitable culture shock; they all come from communities without a single set of traffic lights.
We currently reach over 600 participants nationally, across five program locations; Halls Creek, Carnarvon and Bidyadanga in Western Australia and Lockhart River & Kowanyama in Far North Queensland.
Since 2010, via our Community Programs, we have become a consistent and reliable presence in communities where consistent and reliable providers are hard to come by. We have reached over 4400 young women.
Girls from Oz advocates the importance of education, training and employment for success.
Inherent differences between men and women, we have come to appreciate, remain cause for celebration, but not for denigration of the members of either sex or for artificial constraints on an individual’s opportunity.
Also known as Australian Women Donors Network (ABN: 28 141 197 471), Australians Investing in Women is a registered charity endorsed by the Australian Tax Office as a deductible gift recipient (DGR1) under a special listing, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.