Matt Hewson
The Geelong community has rallied to buy some time for beleaguered not-for-profit employment service Northern Futures after its funding was slashed by the state government in last year’s budget.
A fundraising drive, led by Give Where You Live Foundation and GeelongPort and generously supported by organisations such as the APCO Foundation, raised $75,000 – enough to keep the lights on until July.
But Northern Futures chief Andrew Palmer said it would not be enough.
“We’ve had a very generous level of support from businesses and community organisations; times are tough for everyone and there’s not much funding out there available,” Mr Palmer said.
“But the amount of funding that’s needed is not sustainable for community fundraising, it really has to come from government.”
Northern Futures, which works to help people out of poverty and into sustainable employment in Corio and Norlane, had most of its state government funding discontinued in June’s budget.
Despite the community campaign, Mr Palmer said Northern Futures would not be able to operate effectively past the end of this financial year, meaning it was a “race against the clock”.
“Roughly the impact (of the funding cuts) would be around $500,000 to $600,000 a year less than we had before,” he said.
“We’ve got two contracts that will continue until 30th of June 2025. The Brotherhood of St. Lawrence, providing advisory work with disadvantaged people. The state government has renewed that contract but they’ve tightened up the eligibility so less people will be able to be helped.
“The other contract is… Commonwealth funding to deliver a program as part of their Local Jobs, Local Recovery fund, where a regional industry has some need for a workforce. So we’re going to be doing construction pathways to get disadvantaged young people into the construction sector.
“The funds from the two (ongoing) contracts combined will allow us to continue to deliver those services, but they don’t provide sufficient funds for us to keep the lights on in the building.”
Mr Palmer said the type of “place-based” assistance smaller organisations such as Northern Futures provided “punched above their weight”, but the system was not set up to provide for their participation in getting people into employment.
“For this kind of work to continue, it needs government contribution,” Mr Palmer said.
“I have my doubts as to whether MPs – other than our local MPs like Ella George or Chris Couzens, who understand the disadvantage in Norlane – actually understand the consequences of not funding employment services at a state level.”
