Many people may not know it, but the Broncos has a girls academy. It’s not about footy.

It’s about supporting indigenous girls in high school and now Canberra’s kicked in with more funding.

Emily Kuehner reports.

TRANSCRIPT

The Beyond the Broncos program offers in-school mentoring and education, as well as encouragement to achieve maximum school attendance.

Nigel Scullion, Indigenous Affairs Minister: “We’ll be providing $5 million for an additional 1000 students.”

It started with 40 girls, seven years ago.

Vox 1: “They do mentoring with us, like tutoring with our school and helping us.”

Vox 2: “It’s important to learn other people’s culture, and their identity, so you know where they’re from and to learn more about that people.”

Almost three quarters of the girls involved in this program are attending school more than 90% of the time.

That’s double the rate of indigenous girls not involved.

Broncos players make regular visits to schools in South East Queensland and the state’s north.

The additional funding is set to focus on those in the more remote areas.

Bo de la Cruz, Beyond the Broncos Ambassador: “With this new announcement, it’s only going to get bigger and better.”

That means the Beyond the Broncos Girls Academy will now reach out to more than 1400 girls.

Vox 3: “We get to learn about our culture and stuff like that.”

Emily Kuehner, QUT News.