Deutsche Bank enters its fifth year supporting the Clontarf Foundation

For nearly 50 years, Deutsche Bank in Australia has been helping clients achieve their goals and through its partnership with the Clontarf Foundation the bank is proud to be helping young Indigenous boys in Australia achieve theirs.

Deutsche Bank began working with the Clontarf Foundation five years ago as part of its CSR Born to Be programme which seeks to help young people reach their full potential. The Foundation ”exists is to improve not only the education but the self-discipline and employment prospects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boys and by doing so equips them to participate meaningfully in society.”

Like Deutsche Bank, Clontarf believes that lack of opportunity coupled with a position of disadvantage can have serious consequences. Unfortunately, this is true of young Indigenous men in Australia who are over-represented in Australia’s youth detention system and have the highest suicide rate in the world.

The Clontarf programme is delivered through a series of academies established in partnership with local schools. The academies use the boys’ love of sport as the engagement mechanism to attract them to school and in turn improve their school attendance. Clontarf academies help to address issues relating to long-term disadvantage at the grass roots level and in doing so, are bringing about sustainable change.

Deutsche Bank Australia CEO Glenn Morgan says: “Through our partnership with Clontarf, we hope to make a sustainable difference to the lives of young Indigenous men in Australia. Clontarf currently has 9,500 boys enrolled in its programmes and is hoping to reach 12,500 by 2023. We want to be on that journey with them because we believe investment in Clontarf is an investment in Australia’s future." Deutsche Bank co-funded the 100th academy in Matraville, New South Wales which opened in January 2019 and caters for 54 students.

Despite the pandemic, the Foundation was able to continue to retain academy members in the programme and school through a mix of remote and in-person engagement. Clontarf and its participants had a very strong year, breaking several enrolment records and achieving excellent engagement results across education and employment. What started over 20 years ago with one academy, two staff and 25 boys in a remote part of Western Australia has grown to 136 academies, 530 staff and 9,489 boys.

Gerard Neesham, Clontarf Foundation CEO says "Since 2017, Deutsche Bank has partnered with the Clontarf Foundation to help bring about generational change and end Indigenous disadvantage. In addition to the vital funding provided to the Foundation to operate several of its academies in Sydney, Deutsche Bank has hosted and participated in many worthwhile activities with Clontarf academy members, helping to build their confidence, develop their skills and knowledge, and encourage them to attend school regularly. We thank Deutsche Bank for its generous support.”

The partnership with Clontarf Foundation is part of Deutsche Bank’s Born to Be youth engagement programme, one of the strategic CSR pillars. It is made up of over 180 education-led projects, all of which demonstrate the bank’s commitment to addressing the social issues around young people’s potential and unemployment across the globe.