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 118 secondary schools across all Australian states and territories, 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.
Since the first program in 1995, Beacon has worked with over 55,000 students. It 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.
How the Beacon Foundation Delivers Cost Effective Results
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 programs’ 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.