Every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student should have the opportunity to achieve their goals.
The Polly Farmer Foundation, through the Follow the Dream program empowers students to follow their dreams, and they have had success with program participants coming full circle to now being employed at the Foundation and making Board decisions about the future direction of the Foundation.
Cynthia Nelly, a program alumnus now works at Polly Farmer Foundation. While employed at the Foundation, Cynthia is following her dream and is currently completing degrees in Psychology and Human Resource Management at Curtin University.
“Follow the Dream helped me during a critical time of my life, when I was deciding whether to leave high school due to life challenging circumstances,” she said.
“If it wasn’t for my participation in this program, I would have never continued my education and graduated from high school and pursued further education at university.
“With my employment at Polly Farmer Foundation as a Human Resources Administrator, I can help give back to the program, inspire the next generation and achieve my career aspirations.”
The Polly Farmer Foundation provides academic support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in secondary schools around Australia.
They attribute the success of the program to the creation and enhancement of students’ sense of belonging in and enjoyment of school.
And the data speaks for itself with 67 per cent of year 12 Follow the Dream students achieving WACE in 2022 and performing stronger than the State average of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in WACE.
The Foundation’s beginnings started from the dream of the late Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer, who believed education was ‘the key for Aboriginal people to take their rightful place in modern Australian society’.
The program enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students practical and necessary support to grow their life skills and gain exposure to different options for their future.
Joseph Bin Omar is a Follow the Dream Alumni who now sits on the Board of the Polly Farmer Foundation.
“The program helped kickstart my passions as a student supporting me to graduate high school and pursuing university where I completed a Bachelor of Science and Masters degree,” Joseph said.
“Not only did the program provide me adequate support and nurture a positive learning environment but it also gave me the confidence and left a positive schooling experience.
“I now sit on the board as a Director of the Polly Farmer Foundation as a former student, to ensure voices of young people are central to the foundation’s direction and intent with what we do”.
Delivered throughout 102 secondary schools, Follow the Dream has a holistic approach that engages: program participants, program staff, families, schools, partners and supporters.
Mark Wirtz, Chief Executive Officer of Polly Farmer Foundation, believes in the encompassing power of the Follow the Dream program.
The program creates a sense of belonging, connection to others and connection to culture, something which may be absent or less prevalent in a mainstream school environment.
Follow the Dream has five pillars which guide the fundamental needs of students to empower each to achieve positive academic outcomes: Belonging, Capabilities, Experience, Academic and Empowerment.
In 2024, 96 per cent of Follow the Dream alumni strongly agreed that the program contributed to their academic success, and their pursuits after secondary school.
For more information contact:
Lisa Durston
lisa.durston@pff.com.au
