The Beacon Foundation (Beacon) has an established track record of helping inspire and motivate students to either stay in school and increase their educational engagement and attainment or choose a positive pathway that enables successful transition to employment, further education or training.
Beacon, a national non-profit organisation working in around 130 secondary schools across all Australian states and territories in 2012, believes every young Australian can develop an independent will to achieve personal success for themselves and their community.
Beacon’s programs support young people to develop this focus through engaging and influencing the attitudes and behaviour of the broader community. By harnessing community involvement, it works within schools to ensure young people are either earning or learning at vulnerable transition points in their lives.
Established 23 years ago with the initial No Dole program in Tasmania, Beacon focuses on students who are “falling between the cracks”, typically from low socio economic status (Low SES) schools, by engaging the student in practical, solution focused programs that mobilise the school, parents and businesses in the community to create positive opportunities and knowledge for skills development.
Since 2001, Beacon has had an impact on over 82,000 young people in more than 150 schools in communities in every Australian state and territory. This includes over 14,000 young people in around 130 schools currently completing the program in 2012.
Beacon underwent a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis assessment in 2009. SROI is an internationally recognised framework for measuring and accounting for the broader concept of value, incorporating the social, environmental, and economic benefits for a range of stakeholders. SROI tries to fully reflect the social value an organisation is creating. At the same time it helps organisations to develop evidence for their claims and demonstrate that specific changes are attributable to their actions. The outcome of the Beacon SROI is that their programs deliver an SROI of 11:1. That is, for every $1 invested, approximately $11 of social value is created.
Key findings from this report demonstrate that by embedding a program into the school curriculum, a young person’s ability to successfully transition from school to further study, training or work is enhanced. A key component of the program success was shown to be the strong connection forged between businesses, communities and schools.
*The Beacon partnership model is ultimately self-sustaining. Usually within three years, Beacon schools become self-sufficient with the aim of graduating them to “Platinum status”. This means that Beacon has successfully embedded core principles into the school model and is no longer required to provide direct school support. Instead the schools remain engaged with Beacon through its broader network of schools and shared learning opportunities, leveraging knowledge and program development through a cluster model of Beacon affiliated schools. Generally, Beacon’s school capacity is at the 120 school mark.
