A Rann Government program that helps the State’s most troubled young people to get back into learning or earning is being expanded across South Australia over the next four years.
By 2013, up to 8000 young South Australians, including students in Years 6 and 7 for the first time, are expected to benefit annually from the $30m expansion of the State’s Innovative Community Action Networks (ICAN) initiative.
The expansion is being funded through the Rudd Government’s $1.1 billion Smarter Schools National Partnership with South Australia on Low Socio-economic Status School Communities.
Federal Minister Kate Ellis and Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith today joined with Social Inclusion Commissioner Monsignor David Cappo to announce the State-wide rollout plans.
Minister Ellis says the Federal Government is delighted to contribute funding for the expansion of a program that helps young South Australians to learn or earn.
“As part of the Rudd Government’s Compact with Young Australians, we want anyone under the age of 25 to be learning or earning in full time school, training or work,” she says.
“The first stage will support 15 to 19 year olds to be engaged in learning or training, and the expansion of the ICAN initiative will help us toward this important goal.”
Dr Lomax-Smith says the ICAN initiative has been the single most effective program at getting young South Australians back into school, training or work.
“Nearly 80% of last year’s ICAN participants were learning or earning at the start of this year.
“That’s a great effort when you think that each of those 1486 young people had either dropped out of school, out of training and out of work altogether, or were on the verge of doing so.
“ICAN works because it uses local ingenuity to find whatever it takes to overcome the individual circumstances that prevent each student from being at school.
“Those circumstances might be a mental illness, caring duties at home, an unsupportive family, juvenile justice issues, homelessness, ill health or simply difficulty sitting in a classroom.
“With the backing of schools, training organisations and communities, and some innovative thinking, we believe there is no barrier to learning or earning that cannot be overcome.
“ICAN has touched the lives of more than 8000 young people since 2004 and, with an 80% success rate, it is helping many young people to experience an impossible dream.
“Over the next four years, we will progressively expand the ICAN programs from the four existing regions to reach students across South Australia.
“As a State, we cannot afford to have our young people skipping school and doing nothing. It is simply not an option.
“ICAN, an invention of South Australia’s Social Inclusion Board, is the way forward for young South Australians with every hope of a successful future but in need of support to get there.”
The ICAN initiative currently operates for secondary students in the northern, southern and north-western metropolitan areas and the Upper Spencer Gulf region.
Four new ICAN areas will be established this year – the Yorke Peninsula; outer southern suburbs, Kangaroo Island and the Fleurieu Peninsula; the Riverland and Murraylands.
The program will also be expanded to include students from Years 6 to 12.
Monsignor Cappo says he is delighted the ICAN initiative will be able to reach out to more young South Australians in need.
“Compassion and innovation working hand in hand can achieve great things for young people who might otherwise wander aimlessly towards a hopeless future,” he says.
“We know our approach works and it works well, and through this expansion we’ll be able to help even more young people, including those in upper primary.
“The move to high school can be a difficult time for students who face other issues in their lives and it’s also a time when patterns of absenteeism can surface.
“ICAN case managers provide one-on-one support to help these students back into school and then successfully make the sometimes difficult move to high school.
“Already, dozens of new programs have been instigated through ICAN to offer young people alternatives to school that fulfil their interests and ambitions.
“National and international education authorities are showing interest in our work and the Federal Education Minister visited the ICAN Gawler 15 Program this year to see the model in action.”