Over the last few months we’ve invested significantly in gauging how staff feel about Compass’ company culture, making changes where possible along the way. One thing staff clearly felt very passionate about was increasing our engagement with the wider community, so we set to work identifying organisations that align with our values to partner with.

As you may be aware, Compass was founded on the principle of giving public schools greater access to software that traditionally only institutions with significant budgets could afford. We believe that everyone should have access to a high-quality education and that students shouldn't be disadvantaged due to the area they grow up in or their parent's income level.

As such, we have chosen to partner with the Smith Family. The Smith Family is an independent Australian non-profit whose goal is to create opportunities for disadvantaged children and their families and encourage them to participate more fully in society, using education as a key tool.

We’re partnering with the Smith Family to support the iTrack mentor program, which will provide the opportunity for employees to support and engage young people from disadvantaged communities. 89% of past iTrack students said that their iTrack mentors helped them to be more positive about their future career and study options, while 85% said having a chat with their mentor helped them understand more about achieving their goals. We think those are incredible results.

We’re proud to be partnering with the Smith Family, and can’t wait to update you on the work we do with them on the pages of this blog.