Part 2: Achievements and challenges–performance insights
- Building the evidence base
- Partnerships
- Volunteering
- Indigenous communities
- Stronger Families and Communities Strategy
- More help for families
- Helping prevent homelessness
- Giving children the best possible start in life
- The new Child Care Support Program
- Helping parents support their children—the Child Support Agency
- Work and family
- Encouraging participation
- Reforms to support people with disabilities
- FaCS–Centrelink Business Alliance
- People are a priority in FaCS
- FaCS triple bottom line reporting
Volunteering
Key points
- The FaCS suite of volunteering support programs trains, supports and refers around 19 000 volunteers annually.
- Voluntary work builds capacity for individuals to participate, and strengthens community capacity.
- Around 4000 organisations that support the volunteering effort received small equipment grants in 2003–04.
Volunteers make a significant contribution to Australian communities and are supported through the FaCS portfolio in a number of ways. The FaCS suite of programs provides training, placement support, opportunities to use volunteering as a stepping stone to paid work, opportunities to fulfil mutual obligation commitments through volunteering, and practical assistance through small equipment grants.
The Volunteer Management Program supports organisations by providing appropriate training for volunteers and volunteer managers. The Voluntary Work Initiative (VWI) helps income support recipients fulfil their obligations through voluntary work that builds their capacity to participate, and the capacity of their communities.
Both programs continued to provide valuable support to the volunteer sector in Australia, and to make an important contribution to the Australians Working Together initiative. This was evidenced in the Government's commitment of funding of $7.3 million over four years for VWI in the 2004–05 Budget, following a review of the programs in late 2002.
The Volunteer Small Equipment Grants program (VSEG) continued to provide an important boost for community organisations that support volunteers. The program provides grants of up to $5000 to help community organisations purchase equipment that will make the work of their volunteers easier, safer and more enjoyable. There have been six grant rounds since 2001, the International Year of Volunteers. Since 2001 the Government has provided around $20 million to over 10 000 volunteer community organisations.