Premier announces $3.6 million contribution to The Exodus Foundation

This Premier of New South Wales, The Hon. Barry O’Farrell, has visited The Exodus Foundation in Ashfield to announce the State government would contribute $3.6 million over the next three years towards our literacy program for the poorest children in the State.

The Exodus Foundation’s literacy program operates in Ashfield and Redfern in New South Wales. Developed in conjunction with Macquarie University it is an intensive and systematic program designed specifically for low progress readers who have begun a cycle of failure in regular classrooms.

Students are recruited from schools that have been identified by the New South Wales government as serving the highest number of economically and socially disadvantaged children.

Students make average gains of 15 months in reading accuracy, and a 50% increase in the number of words read per minute. The program routinely lifts kids from below, to above the national average in reading accuracy.

“The announcement by the Premier today will help us change the lives of hundreds of kids,” said The Exodus Foundation’s CEO the Rev. Bill Crews.

“Without our literacy program these kids would battle through life with a sub-standard reading ability and all the social impediments that go with it.”

The Exodus Foundation literacy program offers hope to the estimated one-in-five students identified as having fallen to, or below, minimum literacy levels.

“A world of possibilities is opened up for the kids who complete our literacy program,” said Mr Crews. “A huge thanks to the Premier for contributing in such a positive way to the future of New South Wales.”