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2023 Impact Evaluation PDF

Surveys were conducted with 4 key stakeholder groups – current students, alumni, family members, and program coordinators – in order to capture the experiences and perspectives of different stakeholders, focusing on current and recent program experience. The 5 pillars of PFF’s work – Belonging, Capabilities, Experiences, Academic and Empowerment – were identified as a suitable framework for mapping FTD participant outcomes.

The results were then collected and analysed to form our impact evaluation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students can experience unique feelings of disconnection from their school, due to experiences of discrimination, isolation, not being able to find others with shared experiences, and feeling burdened or singled out during cultural activities.

Follow the Dream aims to create a sense of belonging and safety through providing culturally safe and supportive staff, activities and physical spaces. This supports students to strengthen their connection to culture, to other students, and with their school, leading to wellbeing, self-sufficiency, and personal and cultural identity. As being in a suitable physical space, having the right type of people as staff members, peers to share experiences with, and a trusted person at school can also help engage families, can all further contributes to students’ sense of belonging. Over 80% of alumni and the majority of current students strongly agreed FTD helped them feel more connected to culture.

The ongoing impacts of colonisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including impacts such as intergenerational trauma and disadvantage and poverty, can mean that young people can struggle to develop core capabilities such as including resilience and the confidence to try new things at the same level and time as non-Aboriginal students.

Follow the Dream supports students in developing general capabilities such as personal and social skills, critical thinking, and ethical and intercultural understanding. This occurs through regular mentoring and tutoring to help to build capabilities in planning, goal setting, critical reflection, and teamwork.

Our Alumni spoke about good experiences with program coordinators where they were “on my side” and “had faith in me” and stated that the staff are people they can go to for help, they also strongly agreed that the program gave them useful life skills.

What did the surveys tell us about the extent to which FTD promotes capabilities?

A variety of different and new experiences can increase students’ exposure to different opportunities that enrich their learning, help them enjoy school more, and encourage them to broaden their horizons when considering options for their future. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students can face barriers to participating in some experiences, such as the cost to participate, this puts them at a disadvantage to non-Indigenous students.

Experiences are an important part of FTD, providing program participants with culturally relevant opportunities that target particular needs and help them enjoy school. Some of these experiences also help connect them with a network in which academic success is celebrated and validated.

The majority of current students and 75% of alumni said that FTD helped them enjoy school more. Some family members also commented on the impact of FTD on school enjoyment, for example “[my child] looks forward to going to school because she loves going to Polly Farmer.” When students and alumni were asked what they liked most about FTD in the survey, camps and excursions were the most common responses. Alumni said that the relationships they built during camps were as important as the information they received, and that building connections with older students and the staff based in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander support programs made the transition to university a lot easier.

There is a widely known ‘gap’ between the experience of and success in education by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people compared to other students. This gap has nothing to do with the capacity or intelligence of young people and everything to do with the legacy and on-going experience from colonial dispossession.

In WA 2021, 61.1% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 20-24 years old had a year 12 or equivalent qualification, compared to 90.4% of non-Indigenous people, and 37.1% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had completed a non-school qualification of Certificate III or above compared to 73.4% of non-Indigenous people.

FTD provides targeted assistance to secondary students that promotes academic achievement and active school participation. In addition to the experiences and activities mentioned earlier, this includes after-school tutoring that runs for 3~4 afternoons each week, along individualised support around learning plans and career mentoring, and specific help to students with the transition to post-school pathways such as finding and applying for scholarships, finding accommodation, connecting with university contacts, developing study skills, and creating resumes.

Program statistics available for WA show FTD students, on average, have stronger academic results than the average for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. For example, 67% of Year 12 students in FTD achieved WACE in 2022 compared to 41.5% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Department of Education WA Annual Report 2022-23). Survey results also support this, with 86% of families strongly agreeing FTD helped their child achieve their learning potential.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who commence a post-school qualification are significantly more likely to drop out, with first year attrition of 27% compared to 14.5% for non-Aboriginal students (in 2020). Success in a chosen path goes beyond entry into university or starting work, young people need consistent, supporting and ongoing help to succeed, as the realities of post-school life set in – finding and keeping housing and jobs and overcoming setbacks.

Whilst focused on supporting students during their schooling years, FTD aims to have lasting positive impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people that build on but go further than school achievement, encompassing outcomes such as good choices in career and life, and being able to pursue their aspirations, and inspiring others.

Once they finish Year 12, FTD participants are sometimes offered further support into ‘Year 13’ (a colloquial term for the first year after high school) and beyond. In addition to support, program coordinators may invite alumni to return to their school in a ‘role model’ capacity, for example to provide a speech that aims to inspire current or potential future FTD students. Once FTD students have finished high school, they can stay connected to PFF through the alumni network, to connect with other alumni (e.g., through events) and help inspire others to follow their dreams.

These are strong indicators that FTD is having its intended impact in empowering young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 100% of alumni strongly agreed that FTD helped them follow their dream and 92% (n=22) strongly agreed FTD helped them achieve their post-school goals.,98% of families strongly agreed FTD was good for their child, 72% of current students strongly agreed that they have bigger dreams for their future since being part of FTD, and 59% of alumni strongly agreed FTD encouraged other children in their family to get more involved in school.

Overall, FTD is successfully enabling young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to ‘follow their dream’.

Quantitative data show FTD students perform better, on average, than other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Alumni of the program strongly consider that the program is part of what contributed to academic success, helping them finish school and pursue higher education opportunities. The program does this by creating and enhancing students’ sense of belonging in and enjoyment of school, providing practical and necessary supports to grow life skills and solve immediate problems, and providing experiences that enable students to see different futures for themselves. Within the program, the role and value of personal connections that the students make with each other and with other adults are a key part of success. We heard that seeing and meeting other young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were succeeding in their life paths was strongly encouraging for current students. Ultimately, alumni said that FTD was part of what gave them the confidence and inspiration they needed to go on to succeed, and they credit it, in part, for them being able to live lives they feel empowered in.