Kia Motors Australia has stepped up to provide logistical support for the Learn, Earn, Legend! initiative which helps indigenous students finish school, move on to further study or work, and become a positive role model in their community.
The program _ an initiative of the Federal Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations supported by NSW Rugby _ is identifying 70 students in Year 11 and Year 12 from both public and private schools in Sydney and country NSW with the aim of mentoring them through to realising their potential in education and the workplace.
“This is no free ride. The young men and women who are part of the Learn, Earn, Legend! program will all have to work to achieve their goals,” former Australian Rugby Union representative and LEL Project Coordinator Jim Williams explains.
“Neither is it an elite sports program, although involvement in sport at all levels is an important part of building the peer support network. The aim of the project is to offer a support and nurturing network that can help these young people find their way in what, for many of them, is a very different and daunting environment.”
Williams and the other program organisers have put together a team of mentors ranging from elite sportspeople, through business heavyweights, educators and man-in-the-street individuals whose role is not to coddle the participants but encourage and guide them through their final years of High School education and into the world of employment or university.
“It is an ongoing support program that, by its very nature, has to be very flexible and organic to embrace the varied goals and backgrounds of the participants,” Williams said. “That involves a lot of travel, a lot of talking and a lot of being available where and when needed _ and in that regard Kia’s support through the supply of a Kia Sorento is invaluable and greatly appreciated.”
Kia Motors Australia Chief Operating Officer Tony Barlow said “To be invited to share in this endeavour is both an honour and a privilege that Kia both appreciates and respects.”
Learn, Earn, Legend! is the latest in Kia’s ongoing social responsibility program that sees the company support such worthy causes as Meals On Wheels, SIDS and Kids, The Victor Change Heart Research Institute, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, Street Angels and Kia Motorvation young driver education.