DSS Community Grants Hub: 2021 Volunteer Grant Success
Photo: One of the four office-based workstations for SAcommunity Volunteers funded through the DSS 2021 Volunteer Grant.
What: Community Grants Hub
Who: Department of Social Services
Find open grants from government available for community services and programs
Visit: https://www.communitygrants.gov.au/
SAcommunity was a beneficiary of Community Grants 2021 - Volunteer Grant
What: Community Grants Hub 2021 Volunteer Grant Success
Who: SAcommunity Volunteer Team
When: Funding enabled us to purchase, receive and set-up equipment in March 2022
How: $4,800 Grant provides discounted computer equipment for Volunteer room
Benefits: Assists volunteers provide SAcommunity service and upskill themselves
Connecting Up Volunteers have been celebrating our organisation's success under the Department of Social Services Community Grants Hub 2021 Volunteer Grant. Funding was confirmed on 7 December 2021 and funds received in January this year enabling us to use the $4,800 to purchase computer equipment, receive and set up four new computers in our volunteer room for March 2022.
Community Grants Hub 2021 Volunteer Grant
"The Australian Government recognises the vital contribution of volunteers in strengthening and enriching our communities. This Grant will help your organisation support your volunteers to carry out their important work.
In Australia, more than 8.7 million people volunteer each year, freely giving their time and skills to help others. Volunteers are an important part of the fabric of our society, whether it be helping out in times of disaster or crisis, or helping out in the school canteen, our museums and galleries, or supporting local sporting teams."
Benefits for our Organisation and Volunteers
This funding makes a great difference to the SAcommunity service and benefits our volunteers by providing suitable computer equipment: 4 Intel NUC 16GB RAM + 500GB SSD computers with capacity needed to run our software programs, plus 8 refurbished 23 inch IPS monitors, 5 headsets with microphones, 5 webcams, 4 keyboard and mouse combos plus an external hdd drive to save training video projects undertaken by the team.
Our volunteers have been working both onsite and offsite to continue maintaining the SAcommunity service and directory, with our headsets, webcams, a laptop and computer loaned to some of our long-term volunteers, to enable them to provide customer service remotely, supporting community groups in keeping their details updated through Covid.
The webcams also support volunteers by assisting them to participate more fully in the online Volunteer Zoom and Microsoft Team meetings to keep up to date with activities and events across the organisation, as well for volunteer workshops and training demonstrations for service improvement and access to webinars through Connecting Up’s Digital Learning Platform for professional development and to improve their digital skills.
SAcommunity volunteers and how we help our community
SAcommunity provides the assistive community service information people need for their day-to-day life, for health and wellbeing as well as details for the social groups people need to participate in and connect with their community. Volunteers collect, collate and organise this local community information, details that are traditionally dynamic, fragmented and dispersed across websites, social media, newspapers and notice boards into one collaboratively editable website, for people to find the information they need and to provide a single export source for councils to engage with services operating in their area.
SAcommunity benefits the community by assisting multiple stakeholders with their information needs with website receiving more than 1.4 million visits (1,420,935) and over 500,000 users (556,245) in 2020, with the information directory helping people directly or via local service providers for referrals and networking. Data exports are available for local councils, libraries, and government to reuse this data for e-campaigns for communication and data analytic reports are provided for research. SAcommunity data assists councils to connect with their local community through lists for e-campaigns for consultations, grants or to run community events such as annual fairs, all of which help create networks by bringing the benefits of successful community engagement.
Improving Digital Literacy and Job Readiness
Funding for new computers and equipment for our Volunteers, (many of whom are students, graduates, retirees or near retirement, job seekers, unemployed or underemployed, or people simply wanting to 'give back'), and provides the opportunity to use a range of technology and software tools available in an office. This positive environment builds digital skills and experience, assisting job seekers with their transition into paid employment, and helps in maintaining students and retirees existing digital skillsets while they assist their local community.
