Jobseekers2Communities Program
Background
The Jobseekers2Communities program was a joint initiative between the Western Australian Council of Social Service and the WA Peaks Forum. It was established as part of the Federal Governments Jobsfund scheme, which aims to increase employment in areas in Australia worst affected by the economic downturn. The Jobseekers2Communities project was an initiative of the WA Peaks aimed at increasing employment opportunities in the South Metropolitan Region whilst providing benefits to the community service sector.
The 18 month program that commenced in 2010 established a pool of personal experienced in the areas of management, human resources, information technology, quality assurance, administration, grant/tender preparation and marketing. The goal was to take unemployed skilled workers and re-employ them in the community sector where their skills could be utilised in the community sector. Pool workers were assigned to work in organisations who had applied for a project worker.
Agencies where Jobseekers2Communities workers were placed reported significant improvements in their administrative systems.
Eira Clapton was appointed as Program Coordinator, an office established in Fremantle and a total of 23 project workers recruited and oriented to the community sector and set to work on projects identified by sector agencies. This orientation consists of a week long induction program, an outline of which is now available for download, along with other resources produced under this scheme, here.
What kind of projects have been taken on?
Some of the projects completed to date include:
- Web design and development of websites
- Revamped databases
- Marketing plans
- Records and archival support
- Event coordination
- Policy and procedure manuals rewritten and updated
- Writing of Business Plans and Feasibility Studies
"Its almost as good as a facelift In fact its a stress lift - its even better. So many Peel agencies struggle to gain funds for staff. The business plan has enabled Peel Youth to seek and obtain major donations and grants".
The Peel Youth Service, after having, J2C worker, Sin Gnoh Cheng undertake a total re-vamp of their Policies, Procedures, and develop a Business Plan
J2C Group 3 Workers