NASCA in your school
Strengthening Aboriginal education is vital to building a proud, prosperous, and healthy Australia where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people thrive.
The benefits of NASCA in your school
NASCA school programs
Young Women’s Academy: Supporting Indigenous young women and girls to thrive and excel at school, through connection to Culture and intensive wrap-around support.
All-Gender Academy: Working to improve school attendance, performance, and retention rates, with connection to Culture at the heart of everything we do.
Pathways Program: Supporting Indigenous young people to access further education and employment opportunities, scholarships, traineeships and work experience.
NT Program: Partnering with nine remote communities to increase school attendance and engagement, and develop life-skills.
First steps
Long before we enrol our first NASCA student at your school, we make sure we’re the right fit. That’s why our first step is always to engage with and seek approval from the local community. We do this by consulting with the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, as well as other important Indigenous groups within the community, community leaders, and Elders.
We’re part of you
While NASCA is an external organisation from the schools we work in, that’s not how we operate. Our Program Teams embed themselves at the heart of your school, becoming part of your Aboriginal Education Team. Our Team Leaders work closely with your Executive Team to ensure our program responds to the unique needs of your students, your school, and the community.
By community, for community
Over 93% of our program staff are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, with strong connections to the communities we operate in. When you bring NASCA on board, both the community and the school have a say in who will deliver our programs. This model enables us to build trusting relationships that set young people up for success.
How we’re funded
NASCA works in partnership with the Department of Education, the National Indigenous Australians Agency, schools and corporate partners to deliver our programs to young people across NSW and the NT. We have a shared funding model, meaning we usually require investment from all stakeholders in order to run our programs.
“NASCA is deeply rooted in its commitment to the Indigenous young people it serves. Our first consideration with anything and everything is, ‘How is this going to benefit our young people?’ I believe that our system of 100% Aboriginal governance as an organisation is something that leads to better outcomes, because everything we do comes from a culturally intelligent approach. We know and are part of the communities we work in, and we know how crucial our role is in supporting our young people to live a happy, active, self-determined life. ”
Students enrolled in NASCA are more likely to attend, perform better in, and complete high school, go on to further education, and gain secure employment.
About your school's involvement with NASCA
Our Young Women’s Academy is one of the only programs of its kind in Australia. There are very few other programs or organisations dedicated to addressing the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young women and girls.
There’s a systemic funding disparity in programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young women and girls, so our Young Women’s Academy operates on a co-funding arrangement between schools and state and federal governments.
Our Young Women’s Academies operate five days a week, across the entire school year. To have a Young Women’s Academy run at your school the following criteria need to be met.
- A minimum of 50 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female students are enrolled at your school.
- A dedicated room to run NASCA’s program, with full kitchen access
- School funds are available to help deliver the program (at a cost of roughly $1,500 per student).
- Your school commits to meeting the minimum length of the service agreement.
NASCA currently does not have funding arrangements with state or federal governments to deliver additional All-Gender Academies in NSW. If your school is interested in having a NASCA All-Gender Academy, full funding must come from your school and community.
We want to support as many young people as possible, so in some cases, we may be able to enlist our corporate partners to help fund Academy costs, but this is strictly on a case-by-case basis.
Our All-Gender Academies run two to three days per week for the entire school year.
For NASCA to bring our All-Gender Academy to your school, the following criteria need to be met.
- Full funding from the school and/or community to deliver the program (costs roughly $200,000 per annum).
- A dedicated room to run NASCA’s program, with full kitchen access
NASCA’s Pathways Program runs in conjunction with our NSW in-school programs. We can only offer this program to schools NASCA is already operating in.
Our Northern Territory Program is funded by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA).
Decisions on delivering our program to additional remote communities in the Northern Territory lie with the agency. If you would like more information on this please get in touch with us via the NASCA in your school enquiry button above.
While we currently only deliver our programs in NSW and the NT we are working on expanding into other States and Territories. If you think your school would benefit from having a NASCA program get in touch with us via the NASCA in your school enquiry button above, and one of our program team members would be happy to have a chat with you.
We would love to help you and answer any questions. Get in touch via our NASCA in your school enquiry button above, and one of our team members will be happy to help you.
