By NOEL MURPHY
GEELONG’S needy could miss out on $500,000 a year with the departure of Alcoa, Ford and manufacturing workers to redundancies, warn the city’s leading welfare providers.
But a multiplier effect on Geelong’s social services from the loss of manufacturing industry support could worsen the impact, according to Give Where You Live, Karingal and Deakin University.
Give Where You Live chief Bill Mithen told the Independent his charity would immediately lose $250,000 a year when Alcoa closed on 1 August but the figure could reach $500,000 after other manufacturing jobs disappeared.
The charity cuts come as Ford sacks 120 Geelong staff this week, the city’s food relief struggles to meet demand and calls for help to Give Where You Live almost double the amount of assistance it can provide this financial year. Alcoa is poised to sack 800 staff in August.
“The reduction in income comes at a time when we expect that the requests for grants from community organisations will increase,” Mr Mithen said.
“This (financial) year we received 18 per cent more applications for grants than in 2013. We also received requests totalling 180 per cent of what we will distribute at the end of June.”
Karingal policy and research manager Annette Gill said the “ripple effect” of Alcoa’s withdrawal from Geelong would savage a “whole raft of organisations”.
“There’ll be a gap there and that will be felt socially and economically if others don’t step up and help fill the void,” she said.
“It’s the social capital. If that’s lost, it will cost the community in economic and social terms.”
Ms Gill said Alcoa had helped Karingal’s BacLinks program with sponsorship of community events, donations and volunteers. The company also assisted in the employment of people in a range of enterprises and activities.
“It’s not just the chequebook but the other assistance it provides.”
Nava Subramaniam, director of Deakin’s Centre for Sustainable and Responsible Organisations, said the departure of Alcoa and other employers presented “hidden costs and loss of benefits” still difficult to quantify.
The withdrawal of support services could also adversely affect the wellbeing of Geelong volunteers if they lost their sense of purpose, Professor Subramaniam said.
Welfare groups would have to refine their operating strategies, she said.
“They have to develop more sustainable sources of funds, grants alone won’t make it. They need to become more entrepreneurial and develop new techniques like crowd sourcing.
“They must be cognisant they’re not feeding off the same sources of money and understand the profile and their current and potential donors.”
Mr Mithen said Give Where You Live was seeking more engagement with small-to-medium-size enterprises to bolster its contributions and loaned executive program.
All parties acknowledged Alcoa’s extensive contribution to Geelong over the past 50 years.
