“It’s exciting to see so many local community groups come forward with innovative ideas to help improve the lives of people in Hume,” Senator Kim Carr said. Federal Member for CallwellMaria Vamvakinou welcomed the announcement, saying it’s a great example of how government and communities can work together to ensure support is provided to the people who need it most.“I look forward to seeing locals feel the benefits of these initiatives – such as the ‘Opportunities in Family Day Care’ program which will see newly arrived refugees and migrants trained in family day care,” Ms Vamvakinou said. “And the Ignition project will assist people with training for their driver’s license – a huge step for many people towards finding and keeping a job.“Other projects focus on paths to work for young people, like the Holy Child Primary School’s proposal, where school kids and their families visit universities.“Overall, community organisations will work with 55 schools in Hume and with hundreds of individuals.”
Chair of the Local Advisory Group Rob Hudson said the aim of the projects is to ensure the residents of Hume can gain access to training and job opportunities.“We focused on what Hume needed to connect people to the workforce and give them an opportunity to develop career paths,” he said.
“These projects support people who need to build foundation skills, as well as those who already have workplace skills but need assistance to overcome other barriers to employment like language or needing a drivers licence.”
For more information on the Local Solutions Fund and to learn more about how local communities can get involved visit humanservices.gov.au/bfls or speak to the Hume Community Action Leader, Huon Damm, on 0408 715 616.
Background:
The Local Solutions Fund is part of Better Futures, Local Solutions, the Australian Government’s new approach of empowering communities to identify their own solutions to joblessness and poverty. The Local Solutions Fund provides $25 million across 10 locations from 2012-2015 for innovative and creative solutions to increase social and economic participation. This program will provide approximately the same amount of money to each of the 10 Local Government areas. The recommendations were overseen by the National Place Based Advisory Group.Local Advisory Groups have been established in the 10 Local Government Areas. They are the cornerstone of the initiative and identify innovative practical projects to address local needs and provide an important advisory mechanism to government.
Local Advisory Groups, made up of a range of community representatives, carefully considered all of the applications and selected the projects they thought best suited the needs of their communities and made recommendations to the Minister of Human Services, Senator Kim Carr.
Senator Kim Carr approved the Local Advisory Group recommendations and announced successful projects in each of the 10 selected Local Government Areas.
For more information and for an overview of the projects approved for each community visit humanservices.gov.au/bfls.
