20 Years of Souths Cares: Teachers Aide Program

This year marks 20 years of Souths Cares, a charity built on the South Sydney Rabbitohs’ long and proud history of supporting the community. Since its establishment in 2006, Souths Cares has supported disadvantaged and marginalised young people and their families, with a strong focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Today, the charity engages more than 35,000 individuals each year through programs focused on education, training, health, and employment needs; empowering young people to achieve their dreams and aspirations.

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As part of our Souths Cares: 20 Stories for 20 Years series, we’re looking back at the moments, people and programs that have shaped Souths Cares.

This story revisits the early classroom projects that took Rabbitohs players into local schools, helped lift attendance and engagement, and laid the groundwork for the education programs Souths Cares runs today.

In the early years of Souths Cares, the organisation was still defining what its role in the community could be.

The charity had launched in 2006 with a commitment to supporting the South Sydney community, but the challenge was turning that ambition into programs that delivered meaningful, long-term outcomes.

For John Hutchinson, who became General Manager of Souths Cares in late 2007, the answer quickly became clear: education.

“If we could get our players involved in schools and reconnect kids with education, the flow-on effect could be enormous,” Hutchinson recalled.

Many young people in the South Sydney area were disengaging from school early, limiting their opportunities later in life. Hutchinson believed the influence of Rabbitohs players could help shift that dynamic. But turning that idea into reality was not straightforward.

When Hutchinson first approached the New South Wales Department of Education about bringing NRL players into primary schools, the reaction was blunt.

“They told me there was no way NRL players would be allowed into primary schools,” he said. “There had been a lot of negative press about rugby league at the time.”

Rather than abandon the idea, Hutchinson suggested a trial. Education officials agreed to meet Rabbitohs players at Alexandria Park Community School in Redfern to see how the concept might work in practice.

“I backed our boys,” Hutchinson said. “I said let them meet the players and see how they engage with the kids.”

The visit changed minds almost immediately.

“The boys did such a good job engaging with the kids that the Department of Education said, ‘We’re in. We want to do this.’”

From that point, Souths Cares began delivering regular classroom visits across schools in the South Sydney area.

The initiative soon evolved into what became known as the Teachers’ Aide Program, with Rabbitohs players working alongside teachers to support classroom learning and student engagement.

Schools involved in the program included La Perouse Public School, Alexandria Park Community School, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Primary School and Green Square School, with players visiting throughout the school year.

Rather than delivering lessons themselves, the players assisted teachers by working with small groups of students, often focusing on literacy, numeracy, or PE lessons.

The impact extended beyond the classroom.

Teachers reported improved engagement with school, increased attendance and positive changes in student confidence. Schools also noted improvements in academic outcomes, including stronger NAPLAN results.

Because many of the participating schools had high Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student populations, the program also aligned closely with national efforts to improve education outcomes and support the goals of the Closing the Gap campaign.

By the time Shannon Donato joined Souths Cares as General Manager in 2013, the Teachers’ Aide Program had become a key part of the organisation’s work in the community

“We had a teacher aide program where the players were going into schools, particularly schools where attendance rates were low and they were challenging environments,” Donato said.

“The players would work almost like teacher aides. It helped encourage kids to get to school and engage because they wanted to interact with the Rabbitohs.”

The program sat alongside other early Souths Cares initiatives, including the Nanga Mai Marri mentoring program, focused on helping young people build pathways through education, employment and personal development.

For Donato, the work carried a personal significance.

Having grown up in the area and previously benefited from Rabbitohs-supported opportunities himself, he understood firsthand the impact those programs could have.

“To be able to give hundreds of kids that same opportunity was incredibly rewarding,” he said.

Looking back, the Teachers’ Aide Program helped establish one of the core principles that continues to guide Souths Cares today, that the influence of a football club can extend far beyond the field.

What began as a handful of school visits in Redfern grew into a program that helped reconnect students with learning, build relationships between schools and the Club, and demonstrate the powerful role sport can play in inspiring young people.

Nearly two decades on, Souths Cares continues to deliver education and wellbeing programs reaching tens of thousands of students each year.

But the foundations of that work trace back to those early classroom visits, when Rabbitohs players began walking into local schools and showing young people what was possible.