Grass Roots Support – How RM Williams Outback Magazine has boosted CEFA community growth

Good news travels fast and that was certainly the case for the Country Education Foundation of Australia
(CEFA) when OUTBACK wrote about its work in helping rural school-leavers achieve their dreams (Issues 53 and 59). “It took us 15 years to build 17 communities,” says CEO Jocellin Jaanson, reflecting on the organisation’s founding in 1993. “But in the past 18 months alone we have added 17 new communities.”

The CEFA began as the Boorowa Education Foundation when locals Nick and Julia Burton Taylor identified the need to assist local youth move from school into further education, a life-step that can often be hindered by distance, isolation and financial restrictions. Eventually, the CEFA was formed to act as an umbrella organisation, helping other communities establish their own foundations. “Before 2008, it would be fair to say that we had grown organically, slowly and without the aid of publicity,” Jocellin says. “OUTBACK was one of the first media organisations to pick up on us.”

To date, the CEFA has issued 806 grants totalling $750,000 across the now-34 rural communities that have joined in the effort. “We believe that to create healthy, vibrant communities we need to be investing equally in tradelevel vocations,” Jocellin says. “The world can’t just operate with doctors and lawyers. Unless we invest in every post high-school aspiration, we can’t really say that we’re investing in the
future of our country.”

Jocellin believes that the foundation’s goodwill makes it an extremely attractive subject with the media these days. “The media has really embraced what we do now,” she says. Thanks to OUTBACK’s coverage, Mullaley farmowner and chartered accountant Ian Mackey became inspired and Mullaley became one of the latest (and smallest) communities to get onboard in New South Wales. The CEFA recently celebrated the announcement of a threeyear partnership with Rabobank and Thyne Reid Foundation, whose collective support will foster the advancement of further education and leadership development. The two organisations join a long list of supporters that includes Macquarie Bank, Avis and Jumbuck Pastoral. “This foundation was really needed,” Jocellin says. “At the end of the day, we all believe we deserve a fair go and here we are with the ability to help a kid’s dream come true.”