The Selection Criteria
Funding is limited and applications will be assessed and prioritised according to how strongly they meet the selection criteria. Applications will be ranked on the following selection criteria:
- The size of your organisation's budget. Organisations with a smaller budget will be rated highly.
- The cost of the requested item/s. The smaller the requested amount, the higher the application will be rated.
- Whether the requested item/s help attract new volunteers to your organisation and encourage more people to become involved in volunteering. Applications that attract new volunteers and encourage volunteering will be rated highly.
- Whether the organisation contributes to social inclusion (see below) by assisting disadvantaged and vulnerable, individuals, families and communities, and by including people with little previous involvement in volunteering, or from disadvantaged backgrounds, as volunteers in their organisations. Organisations that contribute to social inclusion and assist the disadvantaged will be rated highly.
- The volunteer-to-staff ratio and the number of volunteers. The more volunteer staff the organisation has in comparison to paid staff, the higher the application will be rated.
- The number of volunteers who will benefit from the items requested. The higher the number of volunteers to directly benefit from the items, the higher the application will be rated.
- Whether your organisation received funding under the Volunteer Grants Program 2008, in your own right or as a sponsored organisation. Preference will be given to organisations that did not receive Volunteer Grants Program 2008 funding.
Social Inclusion
- Social Inclusion is a priority of the Commonwealth Government. The Government’s vision of a socially inclusive society is one in which all Australians feel valued and have the opportunity to participate fully in the life of our society.
Achieving this vision means that all Australians will have the resources, opportunities and capability to:
- Learn by participating in education and training
- Work by participating in employment, in voluntary work and in family and caring
- Engage by connecting with people and using their local community's resources
- Have a voice so that they can influence decisions that affect them.
The Government has identified six early priority areas in which to focus its work on the social inclusion agenda.
- Addressing the incidence of homelessness. Homelessness can affect anyone and there are many varied causes, including domestic violence, a shortage of affordable housing, unemployment, mental illness, family breakdown, and drug and alcohol abuse. The Government is actively working to provide affordable housing linked to appropriate support services and deliver integrated support to prevent homelessness from happening.
- Closing the Gap for Indigenous Australians. The Australian Government has set targets for closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage with respect to life expectancy, child mortality, access to early childhood education, educational attainment and employment outcomes.
- Employment for people living with disability or mental illness. People living with disability or mental illness can be more vulnerable to disadvantage including lower levels of education, lack of workforce engagement and limited access to services. Capacity building for individuals, through better access to education and training, will help people living with a disability to work and participate actively in the community. The Government is working to create equal and sustainable employment opportunities and build understanding and support in the community.
- Addressing the needs of jobless families with children. Australia's rate of jobless families with children, compared to other OECD countries, is relatively high. Despite strong improvements in the circumstances of the majority of the population over a decade of strong economy from 1983 to 2007, the number of jobless families declined only slowly. Jobless families in Australia include a high proportion of single-parent households, many of whom have other types of disadvantage such as poor health, disability or low educational attainment.
- Focusing on particular locations, neighbourhoods and communities to ensure programs and services are getting to the right places. Some communities are facing concentrated multiple disadvantages such as unemployment, low income, difficulty in accessing services such as health and education or poor physical amenity. A locational, place-based approach means that solutions can be tailored to their unique circumstances in partnership with the community.
- Delivering effective support to children at greatest risk of long-term disadvantage. Not all children have the same opportunities across Australian communities, and some children experience multiple disadvantages that can impact on their development, education and wellbeing. A range of protective factors can help to overcome the impacts of disadvantage, and the Government is actively working to assist children at greatest risk.
More information is available from the Social Inclusion website.
- Stolen Generations: The term 'stolen generations' generally refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who were forcibly removed from their families and communities by government, welfare or church authorities as children and placed into institutional care or with non-Indigenous foster families. The forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children began as early as the mid-1800s and continued until 1970. This removal occurred as the result of official laws and policies aimed at assimilating the Indigenous population into the wider community.
- Forgotten Australians: refers to the around 500,000 Australians, or 'care leavers', who experienced institutional or out of home care as children in the 20th century, many of whom experienced abuse and neglect.