The future of a homework club run in public housing buildings in Melbourne's inner-north is in doubt, with the grassroots group soon to run out of funding, ABC News reports.
Young Assets Foundation (YAF) founder Mubarek Imam told ABC Radio Melbourne the club was previously run by the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, but when the charity parted ways with it, YAF stepped in.
Mr Imam said the club had secured funding through the City of Yarra and the Scanland Foundation, but that had since dried up.
As demand for the program continues to grow across the city, YAF is now looking to the state government for longer term funding — but grant applications have been unsuccessful.
"Now we have interest from three different councils, however we need funding to keep this going, so that we can identify other areas of support as well," Mr Imam said.
"The funding we have will keep us running for the next five weeks but after that, it's really at risk of being closed."
About 150 young people have been accessing the program each year, with about a dozen students attending sessions each day.
"Young people access it on a daily basis, what's going to be lost is those young people who have aspiration and dreams that are not going to be implemented because they're not receiving the right support," Mr Imam said.
The group also offered a mentoring program where students living in social housing were paired up with a mentor to help hone their goals and break down barriers that may have stopped then accessing additional academic help.
"Some of our participants are public housing residents and ... most of those public housing residents come from non-English speaking backgrounds," Mr Imam said.
Mr Mohamed was struggling at school so he started showing up at a homework club.
It helped him score entry to an engineering degree.
"I came straight from Somali, and started the homework club straight away ... and it helped me adjust to the curriculum."
With the club at risk of closure, he was concerned other migrants would not have these opportunities.
FULL STORY
Fitzroy Homework Club's future in doubt as foundation struggles to secure funding (ABC)
PHOTO
Omar Mohamed has returned to school as a tutor.(Supplied: Pexels)
