A new initiative to support and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls was launched at Canobolas Rural Technology High School on Thursday.
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The Girls Academy works with more than 30 schools across Australia, delivering an on-site program to boost school attendance, improve academic performance, build confidence, enhance health and wellbeing, and strengthen cultural connection.
Canobolas Girls Academy program manager Nikita Mason says the program gives support to students who face daily barriers inside and outside of school.
“The program enables us as staff to build effective and positive relationships with students and families to encourage school attendance and the confidence to succeed as young Aboriginal women,” she said.
Canobolas Rural Technology High School Principal Kate Wootten said the school strives to ensure students achieve their potential in academic, cultural and sporting arenas, and the Girls Academy will become an integral part of the programs the school has to ensure that those goals occur.
“We envisage that this relationship will continue long into the future,” she said.
With support from the federal and Western Australian governments, and the private sector, the Girls Academy is undertaking a significant expansion, which aims to more than double the number of Indigenous Girls who benefit from the program to 2500 girls enrolled nationwide by the end of 2017.
The Girls Academy is a community-driven program that works within the school system to support girls to engage in education and pursue their goals though mentoring, sport, cultural and empowerment programs.
The Girls Academy staff, 80 per cent of whom are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, deliver the program in more than 30 high schools across Western Australia, NSW, and the Northern Territory.