Community

WELLSPRINGS FOR WOMEN - ACTIVATING AND SUPPORTING ISOLATED SENIOR WOMEN (ASISW)

Activating and Supporting Isolated Senior Women (ASISW) is a project designed to meet the needs of a growing cohort of isolated women in Greater Dandenong, Casey, and Cardinia shires. The program extends the Wellsprings for Women Home Visitation model of service which receives referrals of women who are vulnerable and isolated, and either need homebased support, or assistance to re-engage in community activities. It will involve assessment of needs, a goal plan and an incremental involvement in a range of activities offered to suit the women's needs and pace. The women are matched with trained volunteers who will visit them weekly and assist them in implementing their action plan.

THE FUNDING NETWORK - VICTORIAN RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFILIATE PILOT PROGRAM

Since 2013 The Funding Network (TFN) has shaken up giving by leveraging the collective power of people. Through their interactive, live crowdfunding events, grassroots non-profits pitch to a large audience for funding, pro bono and in-kind support. They have proven the model through 85 live crowdfunding events, supporting 280 non-profit organisations and facilitating over $11M in financial and in-kind support through a network of 9,000 people.

 This rural and regional expansion compliments their strategy to build the capacity of grassroots non-profits, fund social change programs and engage communities in collective giving. The Jack Brockhoff Foundation is pleased to help their efforts in leveraging the TFN model to support local changemakers in rural and regional Victoria.

LAUNCH HOUSING

Launch Housing is the pre-eminent provider of high-quality services to assist people sleeping rough in Melbourne. They are part of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH), a national partnership of community agencies focused on implementing a Functional Zero approach to ending rough sleeping. 

Functional Zero adopts a harm reduction approach to the problem of homelessness. It is reached when the number of people entering homelessness is less than those leaving the system, having resolved their homelessness. Eradicating homelessness remains Launch Housing’s overall goal; however, due to economic and social inequality, and a severe lack of affordable housing, significant systems change over time is required to achieve this. This project supported the implementation of a By-Name List, which is a key component of a Functional Zero approach. The Project Worker will manage this real-time list of all people sleeping rough within an area, and progressively expand the list across metropolitan Melbourne.

WestJustice

Poverty is not destiny, yet we know that many young people born into disadvantage and poverty are more likely to experience poor health, disrupted education, lower employment prospects, mental health and addiction issues, homelessness, legal problems, financial illiteracy and family relationship breakdown. This is further exacerbated when children are placed into out of home care. Over the years, WEstjustice has worked extensively with vulnerable young people through imbedded 'outreach' legal services delivered where young people live, learn, work and socialise.

The organisation has developed long standing partnerships with youth organisations, schools and hubs to ensure that secure relationships of trust are developed through reliable and comprehensive legal services delivery models. This 2-year project aims to capitalise on these longstanding partnerships and offer comprehensive legal services to children in care and custody. Currently legal services available to these young people are very limited and predominately criminal law centric. WEstJustice will provide more comprehensive services which include child protection, employment, debts, fines, housing, and criminal law. They will do this in collaboration with youth, health and wellbeing services.