Media Release by Senator the Hon Ursula Stephens

Funding boost for volunteers and peak body

Joint Media Release with:

  • The Hon Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

To meet the growing demand for volunteers the Australian Government is delivering a $250,000 funding boost to train new volunteers and assist in accreditation of new and existing volunteers. This boost will help more volunteers access the training and accreditation they need to keep up with the demands of their jobs. It will help cover the costs of training, including general and mental health first aid, leadership, trauma management and working with vulnerable people courses.

Funding will be distributed nationally through the state and territory volunteering peak bodies to ensure training and accreditation courses are available to volunteers when they need it.

We understand that many volunteers are balancing their volunteering with full-time work, family responsibilities and other commitments, so it’s important that they can access flexible training and accreditation courses.

The Australian Government has also reaffirmed its financial support to Volunteering Australia following a scheduled review of the national peak.

Volunteering Australia will continue as the national volunteering representative body with an additional $484,000 Australian Government funding to June 2011. This includes $150,000 to provide key national volunteering events, such as the National Conference on Volunteering in October 2010, and the National Volunteer Week activities in May 2010, and $64,000 for the GoVolunteer website (www.govolunteer.com.au).

Volunteering Australia will also receive a final $100,000 until 31 March 2010 to complete training and administrative projects under the National Volunteer Skills Centre initiative.

The Australian Government values the hard work of Volunteering Australia as an advocate for Australia’s 5.4 million volunteers.

We look forward to continuing to work closely with Volunteering Australia on the development of our National Strategy for Volunteering and in the lead up to 2011 – the ten year anniversary of the International Year of Volunteering.

More information on the development of the National Strategy for Volunteering is available at Social Inclusion (www.socialinclusion.gov.au).