In April 2011 we wrote a newsletter article about Collaborative Consumption – if you’re not sure what that is, it’s sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping through network technologies.

There have been lots of developments since then so we’re revisiting the topic to let you know about some new initiatives that you might want to explore and get involved with.

2-8 September National Child Protection Week

Child protection services in SA are provided by both government agencies and community organisations.

Families SA is the SA government agency that is responsible for child protection services, providing support to children and families, intervention and collaboration across agencies.

The South Australian Department for Communities and Social Inclusion (DCSI) has launched a new public information search tool called MapIQ.

MapIQ focuses on connecting citizens to community based services in their neighbourhood and to the wider community. Through simple visualisation mapping technology and the understanding of location it can lead organisations and citizens to make well informed decisions and better choices.

The State Library of South Australia is using Flickr to invite additions to its permanent archival collections.

Where once we waited to see what photographs of South Australian people, places and events came to us, now we are able to actively invite good quality digital images for inclusion in the archives.

Changes are coming for home care services to aged people and people with disabilities

Much has been said about the aged care and disability services recently. Last year the Productivity Commission launched its reports on aged care and on disability care and support. In April this year the Federal Government announced its package of reforms for the aged care sector. It has also committed funds for the first stage of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

We're in the middle of National Volunteer Week 2012, and it's great to see not-for-profit organisations on Facebook and Twitter sharing how their volunteers are making a difference. This year's theme, "volunteers - everyone counts" makes the point that every single volunteer is significant to the organisation and cause they're a part of. Without them, many organisations wouldn't be able to do what they do.

We're no different!

The Connecting Up Directory of Australian Not-for-Profits and Charities wouldn't be around if there weren't diligent volunteers updating and adding content everyday. Without them, it wouldn't be what it is today.