Prepare to meet some amazing individuals who are using technology for social justice. This episode was recorded live at the Technology for Social Justice conference – Australia’s premier not-for-profit technology capability building, upskilling, networking and awards event, celebrating and exploring how technology can enable leaders to amplify impact.
Johanna sat down to chat with CEO of Infoexchange, David Spriggs, and Infoexchange’s strategic lead Tish Tambakau to talk about the origins of the conference and a new Program to support NFP tech adoption. Then she dives into conversation with Joey Esguerra from Uniting to learn about about how AI in being the care sector. Patima Tantiprasut, CEO of Pet Rescue shares how technology is helping keep pets in loving homes; Jess Wilson, CEO of Good Things Australia and Hiba Ayas, the multicultural team leader from Whittlesea Community Connections share inspiring stories of digital programs empowering women; and Suzie Riddell, the head of evidence and impact at the Smith Family talks about how access to the right tech can help set a young person on a positive trajectory. This one is a special episode: prepare to be inspired.
Links:
Pet Rescue: https://www.petrescue.com.au/
Good Things Australia: https://goodthingsaustralia.org/
Digital Sisters Program: https://goodthingsaustralia.org/our-programs/digital-sisters/
Smith Family: www.thesmithfamily.com.au
For transcript and full show notes visit techpolicy.au/podcast
Transcript
Johanna: The Tech Policy Design Institute acknowledges and pays our respects to all First Nations people. We recognize and celebrate that among many things, Indigenous people were Australia’s first tech innovators.
Welcome to Tech Mirror, the podcast where we talk about how technology is shaping our world and how we the humans can shape technology back.
And in this episode you’re gonna meet some very special humans who are working across in the not for profit sector in Australia and harnessing technology for good.
Joey: The position of Uniting has never been to use AI to replace people. We already acknowledge that there’s a workforce shortage.
And the mission of this organization is to provide care. At the core of care is a human. Yeah. AI can’t replace that.
Johanna: Yeah.
Joey: Never.
Hiba: This program helped, women under the age of 50 to, engage with, digital skills and build their capacity to be able to support first themself and then the community, and their kids and their family.
Patima: Pet Rescue is a national animal welfare organization. We operate Australia’s largest and most trusted pet adoption platform, petrescue.com.au - beautifully, we’ve just celebrated an incredible milestone only a couple of weeks ago with a million pets adopted via the platform.
Suzie: So the impact is about belonging, which supports people to turn up to school, it supports stronger engagement, it supports higher retention at school so that students are more likely to finish year 12. And all of that is part of leading to going on to further education, further study, and meaningful jobs.
Johanna: Yeah, yeah. It’s life-changing stuff.
Johanna: So sit back and prepare to be inspired. We kick off this episode with a chat with David Spriggs the CEO of InfoExchange, the convenors of the conference, Tech for Social Justice, where we recorded this podcast live.
Johanna: So can you tell us a little bit about the Tech for Social Justice Conference?
David: So this is actually, the 21st y ear of the conference. It used to be called the Connecting Up Conference. We rebranded a few years back and called it the Technology for Social Justice Conference.
Johanna: Yeah.
David: Why? Because I think technology for social justice is as relevant today as it has ever been. And what we’ve always tried to do is bring a real diverse range of perspectives to the table. So when we talk about tech in the not-for-profit sector that can look very different if you’re in a very large not-for-profit to a medium not-for-profit to a small not-for-profit. And often organizations who join the conference here might be entirely volunteer-led, for example. And so the scale of challenge across the sector is massive. But then bringing in other voices, and so we really like to bring in tech companies to talk about what they’re doing to brin g in government to talk about what they’re doing, to bring in people from universities.
And I think that’s kind of the secret sauce to a lot of the discussion that we have.
Johanna: And, can you just tell us a little bit about Infoxchange? you’re a not-for-profit, but you are a not-for-profit that services not-for-profits, which is pretty cool.
David: That’s right. Yeah, absolutely. So we’re a not-for-profit founded over 35 years ago now on this vision of technology for social justice. And what is our kind of our reason for being, it’s empowering communities through the use of technology, and then as you said, uplifting the not-for-profit sector and helping organizations have more impact in their work through technology.
And you can imagine that’s changed massively- Oh, I’m sure … over the course of 35 years. One of our leading platforms today is a platform called Ask Izzy, and it’s a mobile website that helps people in the community connecting with services in their local area.
So originally designed for people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or experiencing family violence. But if you look at the usage now in the cost of living crisis and now the fuel crisis, heartbreakingly, over eight and a half million searches for help on that platform just in the last 12 months just in Australia.
Johanna: Wow.
David: So a third of those are people just looking for emergency relief food. They’re looking for housing support, mental health, family violence support services. But if you think about the evolution of that over the time, over 35 years ago, we had a team producing that, and it was being produced in paper directories.
Johanna: Yeah. Wow.
David: And then kind of moved to cutting-edge technology like floppy disks and CD-ROMs. Then this thing called the internet came along. And then all of a sudden everybody’s walking around with mobile phones. And so kind of that’s transitioned massively from a tool that was used by people in the sector and by people in governments.
And these days we can put that information directly into the hands of, of people in need. So that’s some of the direct work we do.
And then so, so we do work to lift digital capability across the not-for-profit sector. We work with most of the major tech companies, and they’re often quite generous in donating or discounting their tech into the sector.
But then as we all know, just having the product doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. Yeah. It’s kinda how do you learn to use it? What do you need to think about? And so we run a lot of capacity building programs for the sector. Mm. And guess what? At the moment, you know, one of the hot topics obviously is, is AI.
And we do an annual survey of the sector, and one of the things that really concerns us is that while the sector’s kind of embraced the use of these tools, only 14% of organizations have any kind of AI policy or guideline in place. And that’s, that is really concerning when you think about the data of vulnerable community members that so many not-for-profits hold.
And so that’s what we’re doing at the moment, is to try and raise awareness of that. And then help organizations build practical guidelines and policies for their teams. Working with people like the Australian Government’s National AI Center on that.
They’ve been great. They actually listen. So the, some of the first versions of their voluntary guardrails, you know, I’m sure they were fantastic, but for a small not-for-profit, they couldn’t understand it. All of these pillars, all of these sub-points. So how do you kind of boil it down into something practical? Yeah.
Johanna: Well, it sounds like an amazing program of work that you do. But you had a big announcement at this conference. Do you maybe wanna just talk people through what that announcement is?
David: So we were super excited this morning. Yeah. Yeah, to launch a new initiative called Not-for-Profit Digital Futures. Yeah. The genesis was the not-for-profit sector development blueprint. And that was an activity led by government that not-for-profits spent a whole lot of time contributing to.
It’s like, as a sector, over the next five or 10 years, what do we need to do across all areas of workforce and funding? And clearly digital technology was a big piece of that. So like many great government reports, that was finished, and we say, “Well, what’s gonna happen next?”
Johanna: Yes. How do we implement this -
David: That’s right
Johanna: to make it real?
David: And there was a kind of pause and silence in there. And so we thought, “Well, what if we take a sector-led approach?”
Johanna: Yeah.
David: And so with the help and the really generous contribution of the Impact Assembly at PwC, working with us pro bono we spent the last 18 months co-designing what a better digital future for the sector might look like.
An amazing effort to bring all that together, it’s been philanthropy, tech companies, and government that have all come together to, to make this happen. So we’re super excited now about where we can go and what we can do next.
Johanna: And what do you hope the outcome of that, so there was a plan, you’ve now got an implementation runway. What change will happen because of this?
David: Is that not-for-profits just have a massive step up and leapfrog. So we leapfrog some of our commercial counterparts.
Johanna: Yeah.
David: When people in the community are saying, “Well, where do we look for amazing implementation of AI,” for example, they go straight to the not-for-profit sector and look, here’s organizations that have done it really well.
It’s been safe, responsible, ethical. It’s having huge impact in the community. Yeah. And this is what we can learn from. Yeah. So that’s what I’d love to see.
Johanna: I just love the concept of this Not-for-Profit Digital Futures.program. Uplift the people that are uplifting Australians most in need. So next up I spoke to Tish Tambakau who leads the Digital Futures Program for Infoexchange. I asked her to explain what problem the program aimed to solve.
So fundamentally what NFP Digital Futures is trying to solve is the digital capability gap. Now, we know no one organization can solve this alone, so we’re taking that cross-sector approach. But long-term, we want to create systems change because we want this to be sustained. We wanted to think of it as a long-term journey where organizations can get support for investing into digital capability as essential infrastructure rather than a nice-to-have.
So further to that, what we will be doing as part of NFP Digital Futures is also doing advocacy work, so going back into government, you know, talking about relevant policies that look at lifting digital capability, but also ensuring that, we’re creating the right conditions for that long-term change.
So pay what it takes is, you know- Mm … core at getting government, getting philanthropists or any grant makers to help fund that- Not just program and service delivery, but operational capability so that it is possible for not-for-profits, and we can see that long-term change.
Johanna: Mm. And I think it’s so important, right? Because when we’re talking about the community sector, not-for-profits, the incredible work that is done across the Australian economy, which is, it’s not necessarily contributing the productivity in the same way in terms of an economic return. But it is having such a big impact on overall Australian productivity because we’re uplifting people’s capability. and so if I’m understanding this program correctly, it’s about, upskilling and building the capability of all of these incredible organizations that are doing amazing work to actually use the technology, to force multiply their work.
Am I understanding that right?
Tish: Spot on. Yeah. Exactly. At the end of the day, it’s not about the technology, it’s not about digital, it’s about how do we use that to enable them to be able to spend more time with the communities they serve. Mm. And that’s the whole purpose of it. we know that not-for-profits are the fabric of our society, so how do we help them through technology, to be able to support the people and the community they serve better?
Johanna: So, hopefully, David and Tish have helped to set the scene of this incredibly inspiring tech for social justice conference. If you need a hold a picture in your mind imagine several rooms full of people pulsing with purpose exchanging stories and sharing lessons on how best to use technology to have a positive impact on people’s lives. Its the kind of vibe that you want to bottle…And we wanted to make this really tangible for you, so now we’re gonna bring you a few just a few of the stories of the incredible work that is being done across our country. And we’ll start with a story from the care sector.
Joey: I’m Joey Esguerra, and I work for Uniting New South Wales and ACT, and I lead the digital innovation function, in the digital technology space.
So we are actually part of the Uniting Church Synod, and we’ve been supporting 156,000 clients across New South Wales and ACT.
Johanna: Could you just describe what Uniting actually does? Because some people will think of the church, some people will think of the care system, so just to contextualize that.
Joey: So Uniting has two service pillars. We’re very well known in the aged care sector for the senior services pillar that we call it offers home and community care, it offers residential aged care, and also retirement living. Mm. So that’s our aged care services. The other pillar is actually very focused on community services that addresses systemic issues in the society.
For instance, we’ve got mental health, local area coordination of disability services. We’ve got fostering. We’ve got intensive family services, early learning, and, in Sydney, we’ve got MSIC, which is the medically supported injection center as well. So we’ve got a variety of services that really, if you look at it, it supports what I call the cycle of life.
Johanna: And, can you talk about perhaps the most inspiring ICT or digital project that you’ve worked on in the last, I don’t know, six months or so?
Joey: Six months, yes. It’s actually perfect timing because we actually have reached six months since the full im- implementation. So, we call it Buddy. That’s our first ever Uniting digital assistant. It’s bespoke, and it’s been designed and built for our people in partnership with Microsoft, obviously. And this particular platform is very much employee centric.
It’s to address the challenges around the whole administrative burden, so many multiple systems. How can they access information at the point of care, but also allow them to capture information right there and then without waiting for time later in the day. So it’s how do we actually give time back as well and simplify their lives.
So this one has three components to it. So we’ve got the Buddy app, and we’ve got the, what we call Buddy AI Chat, which is leveraging an AI for searching policies and procedures- Mm-hmm … with succinct, summarized, and actionable insights. It has the multi-language capability. And then the third feature is actually the Buddy AI Notes Transcription, which is allowing them to capture their progress notes at the end of their shift right there and then through voice, and it’s summarized beautifully. It has multi-language capabilities. And once the human has actually validated the output- Accuracy and integrity of information. And the click of a button, it integrates directly into the care system-
Johanna: Amazing …
Joey: In real time.
Johanna: And so what do you see is the biggest positive impact of this tool you’re talking about, or the suite of tools really that you’re talking about?
Joey: Yeah. So for our support workers,particularly because we just rolled it out to our home and community care as of six months ago.
Johanna: Yeah. Wow.
Joey: And that’s across New South Wales, ACT, 1,200 employees are using Buddy now. And the biggest and positive impact is to really give them time back, but also the productivity and efficiency gains. Mm. For support workers, it’s an average save of 30 minutes a day. And for our clinical allied health front office admin officers, it’s on average saving one to two hours. But other than that, those are the average time savings
Johanna: Which presumably they’re then spending with patients or with the people that they’re caring for. With …
Joey: Exactly. Yeah. Allowing them to really focus on that. Reduce the cognitive overload, reduce the memory bias, because some of them would actually go home after their shift and do their progress notes.
What you wanna do is let them have that wellbeing. Mm. Looking at it from a wellbeing perspective. But other observed benefits also was that they now see the increase of notes coming in in a timely fashion.
And the quality of information It’s compliant and families can see that it’s all structured.
And the most one that we’ve actually been highlighting is that our staff with dyslexia are very much confident and happy with using the tool now, ’cause they can just use it with ease. Mm. And they’re proud of their notes- Mm … ’cause it’s professional. It’s- Yeah … yeah, it’s helping them.
Johanna: Yeah. As someone who has chronic dyslexia, and I’ve been using voice assistant, voice dictation technology for my entire career, so now going on nearly 20 years, and it’s quite extraordinary how much that technology has evolved and how much it empowers you to be able to just get things down.
Definitely that resonates with me, what governance do you have around the use of this tool, and to what extent does… I guess, from the carer’s perspective, how have they responded to it? I mean, I presume, you’re saying that they review the notes before finalizing. And then also, I guess, from the families, what’s been the response, from those two sets?
Joey: Yeah. So I’ll tackle first, the controls- Yeah … and the governance around it. Obviously, when released it, we made sure that we were supported with our uniting AI policy.
We also made sure that we went out to our legal teams, to our data governance team to understand, okay, what are the limits of data storage?
Because we always go back to the principle that the source of truth should always be that care system.
We are just a vehicle to make it very easy for capture and access to information. So we made sure that a part, as part of that co-design, it was well understood and accepted also by the operational teams, the care and clinical teams themselves- Mm in agreement and, and that official, handshake …
Johanna: Handshake.
Joey: Now, from a design perspective on the human in the loop that I always talk about, is that it’s making sure that they have the ability to validate- Yeah … the integrity of the information. in the design way of using the terms called user friction – ’cause you’re forcing that human in the loop.
And when they look at it in the care system, when once it’s integrated they can actually see that it was integrated from Mari, that the voice was actually from them.
And the timestamp itself. So they have the ability of that- You know, looking at the traceability back to the human and that they’ve clicked on the validate button.
Johanna: Amazing. And how does it work? You said it’s multi-language. Yes. So do carers who maybe English is a second language, can they dictate in their first language and then it transcribes in English? Yeah. How does that work?
Joey: So we’ve got a diverse workforce. Yeah. And again, true to the nature of, you know, human-centered design, we looked at the language demographics. And then we chose the top, I think, seven or eight, Nepalese being the top. We’ve got-
Johanna: Wow …
Joey: A lot of our workers from Nepal, which is amazing. And we’ve partnered with a lot of them actually ’cause asking them to test it.
Johanna: Yeah.
Joey: As part of the design, there are actually three sections in a page. One is the actual language.
Because you need to have the transparency, but also the explainability why did it get to this English translation?
What was the actual language and words that was used or said at that very moment in time? So they have the ability to validate that. And then you’ve got the English translation, and then you’ve got the output that’s been summarized to a particular structure agreed with the business, with the operational teams themselves. it was never indicated by IT. Mm. It came from them.
So that, that’s been our structure – Yeah … for that.
Johanna: How extraordinary. And how have families responded to this?
Joey: So I’m gonna take you back to the start of the journey, and, my team and I spent 13 to 14 hours in the car on the road with the frontline teams.
And during that process, we had the opportunity to also talk to families and really hear, “Okay, how do you feel about this?” Mm. And what really resonated to me was that they were happy for the staff, because then they don’t need to worry about note-taking.
They just focus on that. But also, what’s funny is that a lot of the clients were very curious about AI.
So watching them use it, I was like, “No, we can’t.” Like, because it’s an employee app, we’re making sure that as an instruction, you don’t capture the client’s voice. Mm. It’s just employee voice. Mm. So that’s how we’ve trained our staff on that one.
Johanna: Amazing. Yeah. And, Often people worry that as we create these productivity and efficiency benefits, that that will result in, organizations saying, “Well, actually, if we’re much more efficient, maybe we need a few less carers.”
Has that been a concern? I mean, so the benefit is that we have more time for caring, the fear I think many people have is that it will result in more efficiency but then less carers. How’s Uniting approaching that?
Joey: Yes. And that has always been a sensitive topic across all of the sectors anyway.
Yeah. And reflecting on those moments when we were running training, a lot of those questions, you know, they would ask, “Joey, is AI here to replace us?” Mm. And even nurses would actually tell me, it’s like, “Joey, you’re asking us to unlearn 30 years of note-taking as a nurse,” you know? And it was very candid, honest, open, and some were, you could feel the apprehension because of AI, and you just need to listen and talk them through. The position of Uniting has never been to use AI to replace people. We already acknowledge that there’s a workforce shortage.
And the mission of this organization is to provide care. At the core of care is a human. Yeah. AI can’t replace that.
Johanna: Yeah.
Joey: Never.
Johanna: Well, that’s amazing. Thank you. So thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you. And it’s really just incredible to hear these positive stories of how AI is, making people’s lives better.
Joey: Definitely. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Jess: I’m Jess Wilson, I’m the CEO of Good Things Australia. and we are an organization focused on digital inclusion, so supporting people to have the tech, the, skills and confidence to be able to participate in society today.
Hiba: So my name is Hiba Ayas. I’m the multicultural team leader from Whittlesea Community Connections. We’re located in, the Melbourne North area, and we support people who live in Whittlesea area and surrounding suburbs.
We are one shop stop, where we provide services for people who live, work, study, and volunteer in our area, and that can be around legal, settlement, employment pathway, volunteering, community health, emergency relief, short courses.
One of the most important programs that we work around technology, and especially taking into consideration the community that we work with, so we work mostly with new arrival migrants and refugee in my team, and digital literacy is not one of, their priority, and they might lack lots of literacy level, and especially some of them are illiterate in their own language, which also make it a little bit harder.
And cybersecurity and accessing all these services that is only available online, so Centrelink reporting, school report, it is complicated for them.
So for example, the Digital Sisters program was one of the first programs that we got, funded by Good Things Foundation, where this program helped women under the age of 50 to, engage with, digital skills and build their capacity to be able to support first themself and then the community, and their kids and their family.
So we focus more around empowering them, helping them to access services.
Look, it can be as easy as using Google Map, you know, to reduce that social isolation. So we saw that positive effect of such program on the community and on women and their young kids. So, for example, we’ve got positive feedback from kids where they’re saying that now my mom is able to connect more with the school and I won’t be able to miss out on school activities because all of this communication was through emails, also through the school system that they use. It’s not user friendly, you know, and even for them to pursue their education or their employment.
Johanna: And Jess For good things, how important is the Digital Sisters program?
Jess: I mean, Digital Sisters been such an important program because it has not only been doing that kind of on-the-ground support that Hiba’s been talking about, making sure that it makes a real difference to women to be able to be connected to their kids’ schooling, to be able to get a job, to be able to get around.
But actually, we’ve got 55 community partners that we’ve been working with over the last three years that come together and learn together and share their- Mm … knowledge and skills. And so it’s not just been about the women on the ground, but actually about building a community of people that are delivering programs to people in the community and learning together. And we’ve done a lot of learning as well around AI literacy. And you know, one of the things I learnt particularly was that I think when we first started doing AI literacy and Digital Sisters, we thought actually maybe we have to do digital skills first and then AI. But the women were learning AI at the same time- Mm as learning digitally because the reason that they wanted to learn was ’cause they wanted to be able to get a job. So actually they needed to use ChatGPT to help them write a CV, or they needed to use the translation tools. So it’s like that kind of thing is the real, importance of these kind of programs.
So number one, I’d say it’s had great impact. So you know, people have increased their skills, their confidence, their social connection, their independence. we’ve built a community of people that are delivering programs that actually make a real difference to people. and we’ve had fun along the way. We’ve learned ourselves. We did. Yeah.
Hiba: And if, if I can add something, when we think that program only supporting the women and engaging them in building their capacity, we’re actually doing way more than that. Mm-hmm. Like, engaging with digital mentors. We made sure that those digital mentors are culturally bicultural workers- Yeah to create that safe environment for community to be vulnerable because it’s not easy, to be as vulnerable and, and feel- Yeah … safe at the same time. But also for those digital mentors, we provided them with first job opportunity for them- Mm … speaking in their own language.
So you don’t need to be perfect in English to get job in Australia. You can even speak only your own language and achieve employment. So, yeah.
Jess: And one of the things that came out of this year, so we know that one third of the digital mentors in Digital Sisters are actually previous participants yes, correct of the program. So actually we’ve seen people go from being the learners to actually being the supporters.
Yeah. And that, as Hiba said, gives them an opportunity to have a job. But actually also, you know, they really understand what’s going on for people. So that’s why it’s so important. It’s such a brilliant program. And it has been funded by the federal government for the last three years and it’s been fantastic. We’ve got a bit of extra funding from Microsoft and Telstra to do AI literacy.But that funding is coming to an end from the federal government. So we are desperately looking for funding, aren’t we, Hiba? Yes, we are. All together, because there’s 55 communities that really need this to continue and many, many, other women across the country that could also benefit from the program.
Johanna: This type of program that operates the grassroots with mentees becoming mentors and the flow on impacts of uplifting The digital literacy of one woman through their communities is so powerful. If you know of anyone who can help support and keep this program alive please reach out and we will connect you to Jess and Hiba.
And it’s not just humans that are being assisted by organisations embracing technology, Patima Tantiprasut, the CEO of Pet Rescue, talked me through how they’re using tech to help pets find safe homes, and or better stay in their homes with loving supportive families.
Patima: My name is Patima, and I work for Pet Rescue, and I’m the CEO and managing director there.
Johanna: So what does Pet Rescue do? Okay.
Patima: Pet Rescue is a national animal welfare organization. We operate Australia’s largest and most trusted pet adoption platform, petrescue.com.au. beautifully, we’ve just celebrated an incredible milestone only a couple of weeks ago with a million pets adopted via the platform.
Johanna: Congratulations.
Patima: Thank you very much. the work is still not completely done, though, because we are working with the whole rescue organization sector across, across the whole of Australia, and that’s including volunteer-run rescue groups, shelters, councils, and vets as well, all working towards a, or a striving for a future where every pet is safe, respected, and loved.
JohannaJohanna: Amazing. So you’ve developed this platform. How does it work? Can you just talk us through that?
Patima: Pet Rescue, has around 800 plus active member rescue organizations across the nation at the moment. We verify each organization, uh, that comes on board to make sure that is a safe environment for people to be not only listing pets for adoption, that is, has the compliance and visibility levels, and also safe for adopters to come and find a pet to bring home, essentially.
What Pet Rescue does something that we’ve been working really hard to be able to get these pets, especially ones that are harder to home as well, seen far and wide by the wider community.
Johanna: Amazing. Amazing. And what’s the impact of this? How did, how is this impacting on people’s lives, or I guess in this case, on pets’ lives?
Patima: For so much of our time we have really focused on finding a home for every pet that’s needed one, and that is essentially the core essence of our work and why the adoption platform exists. But if we really drill down deeper, the, the adoption part of it, finding a home for every pet, is a very downstream part of a really complex and hairy system.
And tonight we are going to be celebrating being a finalist for an innovation award, and the innovation that we’re actually going to be celebrating is looking at the people and pets connection. So what we’ve uncovered as part of how we might look more preventative and how we might be more upstream is supporting the people that are coming with calls for help, and see if we can keep pets together with their family, with people who are experiencing crises, financial hardship, distress.
These calls for help were unexpected for us, but it’s meant that we don’t want to have any closed doors. We want to enable people to be able to potentially keep their pets. And that supportive programming for us has unlocked a completely new stream of prevention and opportunity for us to keep pets out of the rescue system in the first place.
So we’re working in the downstream and finding a home for every pet, but upstream, seeing if we can prevent them and keep them in the homes that they already have.
Johanna: And so how does that work?
Patima: We do have a help desk where we’re getting thousands of calls for support- Wow … with queries coming through from people experiencing financial distress, housing insecurity, food insecurity, and these are very human problems, human-centric problems.
They’re getting in touch with us for calls for help to go, “I’ve run out of options. I need help with my pet. Can you find them a pathway?”
Because right now I’m facing impossible decisions.” So what we’re looking to do with essentially this pathway with the calls for help coming through, is providing them also with the wraparound support that they need in human services as well as giving them options and knowing that we’re a safety net here for their pet in need as well.
And sometimes we are the first line of support. That means that we can connect them up with other services that can provide them with the very support that they need to get back on their feet, to have the options, and to have essentially the dignity of choice going through the process.
The platform that we will be talking about tonight is about that rehoming support, a really tailored support, assisted throughout the whole process. And ultimately the greatest outcomes that we’ve seen have been where the families have been able to stay together.
Suzie: I’m Susie Riddell, and I’m the head of evidence and impact at The Smith Family. The Smith Family is a charity. It’s over 100 years old, and it’s Australia’s largest education charity.
So our vision is all about helping children who are living in households experiencing poverty to access great education so they can fulfill their potential.
Johanna: Can you share perhaps an example of an initiative or a project that you have used technology in to help with The Smith Family’s mission?
Suzie: Sure. So one of the things that The Smith Family is famous for is our Learning for Life scholarships. Mm-hmm. So our Learning for Life scholarships are about three things. One is a financial payment to a family who are- Yeah … living with a low income and have a commitment to supporting their child’s education.
The second is a family partnership coordinator who provides dedicated support to that family with strategic conversations to help them navigate supporting their child’s education. So it might be about a child who’s starting high school. Do you know where they’re going to school, and are they feeling anxious about it?
Mm-hmm. And have you thought about how you might get support? And then the third thing is programs that wrap around that child. So it might be digital and, literacy-type programs. It could be study skills. It could be a whole range of different things. Mm-hmm. And we have a pretty good understanding of what our families’ needs are, and one of those things is that 44% of the children and young people on that scholarship are not digitally included.
Wow. 44%. Yeah. So it’s huge. Yeah. So that means they don’t have a device at home that is digitally connected with the skills to safely participate.
So a program we’re really proud of is our Digital Learning Essentials program- Mm-hmm … in partnership with the Telstra Foundation, WorkVentures- Mm-hmm
the National Device Bank, and then supported by Optus and the NBN. What we’ve been able to do over the last four years is provide 12,000 laptops -
Johanna: Wow …
Suzie: To Learning for Life students who are on our scholarship, and that means a device, a laptop, that’s appropriate for learning connectivity so that you’re able to actually get online and -
Johanna: Amazing.
Suzie: Do that learn, yep … and then the third bit is the skills to safely participate, so how to activate parental controls and skills to be able to learn.
Johanna: That sounds like a very important program that goes much beyond just devices. What’s the impact of that program? How does that actually change the lives of the people who are given these devices and that access?
Suzie: So picture a high school student who is the only student in their class who doesn’t have a device that they can do their homework on, that they can study via on the weekends and then they can access the broader world safely to learn about what they might do when they finish school, where they might study what they might like to be. Mm. The impact of the Digital Learning Essentials program firstly makes people feel like they belong- Mm so that they’re a student like others- Yeah.
Johanna: That would be important, isn’t it? .
Suzie: Who can turn up and they have a device to be able to participate. It builds skills that are essential. So nine out of 10 jobs in the future are gonna require post-school qualifications, and that includes skills to be able to digitally navigate the world.
So it builds confidence that I’m gonna be able to participate in the world of work, and it absolutely is ensuring that they can get the most of out of their education. ‘Cause digital learning infrastructure is essential infrastructure. It’s not just a nice to have that for some kids it’s okay if you can supplement your education with some access online.
It’s absolutely essential- Yeah … nowadays. Yeah. So the impact is about belonging, which supports people to turn up to school, it supports stronger engagement, it supports higher retention at school so that students are more likely to finish year 12. Mm. And all of that is part of leading to going on to further education, further study, and meaningful jobs.
Johanna: Yeah, yeah. It’s life-changing stuff.
Suzie: Totally life-changing.
And the ripple effect can be for the whole family as well. Because while we want to support that student to have a device that’s digitally connected that they can learn on, it often means that other family members are also able to use that device.
So it might mean the difference between a single mum starting to build her capability if she’s been digitally excluded which opens up connectivity and inclusion and skills and possibly new job opportunities for her as well. Younger brothers and sisters who can participate in literacy programs and numeracy programs to supplement their learning at home that they weren’t able to participate in before.
Johanna: Yeah, it’s a real theme coming through so many of the conversations, this ripple effect and what happens when you’re actually empowering one individual, and then that flow on through the community. If people want to support this program, how can they find out more information?
Suzie: Thesmithfamily.com.au is your place to go to find out more about the program, and we’re hoping that we can see a future where every child in Australia has the things that they need in order to be able to access a high-quality education, and that absolutely includes digital infrastructure.
Johanna: Yeah. That seems like a very mighty and worthy goal, so thank you for the work that you do.
Suzie: You’re welcome. Thank you.
Johanna: Well that’s it for this special episode of Tech Mirror, which was recorded in Melbourne on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation.
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