Keeping staff and volunteers' training up-to-date is a huge expense for community organisations and often volunteers pay for this training at their own expense and then volunteer their time! Occupational Health and Safety, First Aid and Food Handling are the most common forms of training for local groups.

Recently Dow Chemicals and Atlas Steel generously provided spaces in their employee First Aid training to enable community volunteers to gain their Level 2 certificate.

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Rocket, pear and goats cheese salad, frittata, tzatiki and Turkish bread – does this sound like the menu from you favourite café? This is the type of meal, prepared by the students, that you can expect after a morning of volunteering in their garden!

Altona Green Primary School has received funding from the Stephanie Alexander Foundation and has started a program that involves children in the planting, harvesting and cooking of fruit and vegetables.

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Laverton Community Children’s Centre provides a range of child care options as well as supporting playgroups, family support services and a toy library.

They have received the funds for a small shed and need some volunteers to put it up in their courtyard and clear an area for a vegetable garden.

Altona Meadows Community Centre requires someone with skills in Microsoft Publisher to bring some new life and creativity into their brochure.

Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES) is Australia's largest provider of specialist, multicultural language, employment and settlement services.

AMES successfully educates and assists over 40,000 people every year, providing an extensive range of adult education, training and employment programs to a diverse client community.

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annecto - the people network, a service that supports people with a disability, is organising a basketball competition with five other day support services at the Altona Sports Centre on Tuesday, 7th October.

Volunteers are required to umpire and help get teams onto the right court, assist with providing drinks, oranges and a barbecue lunch and generally offer support to the teams. A positive attitude is essential, knowledge of basketball is optional!

If spring is nearly here then Christmas is also not that far away. There are always many opportunities for workplace teams to support a local community organisation in the lead up to Christmas, if only for a few hours. These include:

• Packing emergency relief hampers
• Serving at a lunch for elderly or isolated residents
• Assisting with the transportation of residents to events
• Sponsoring a Christmas function for volunteers.
  

If you would like further information about any of the projects mentioned above, please contact Annie Grant, Volition Project Coordinator on:

Tel: 9932 1284
Email: agrant@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au
Web: www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/volition