News
A trial project involving the Victorian police providing 800 road crash victims (non-fatal) with information about the triage system offered by the Roads Trauma Support Services Victoria (RTSTV) has received a grant from the Trust. RTSTV is a unique not-for-profit state-wide counselling, education and support service for people who have been affected by road trauma.
Experience shows that when a fatal collision occurs, the resulting interest by the media and general public highlights the available support services. However, in other less prominent fatal collisions, and in the thousands of injury collisions each year, support is available but knowing who, where, when and how to access this support is difficult. In this trial, RTSTV aims to produce a short brochure outlining the support available which will be distributed to victims by police attending injury-related collisions.
The project seeks to ascertain whether earlier intervention will have the potential to reduce the long term impact on victims, thus minimising their need to access support services and insurance and medical costs.
www.rtstv.org.au
Victoria is a hotspot for orchids, with over 400 unique species found nowhere else in the world. Over half are identified as threatened and will become extinct in the wild without immediate action. Researchers at RMIT’s Department of Applied Science are undertaking a three year study investigating whether fire is beneficial or detrimental to our native Victorian orchids, with the aim of saving the critically endangered Victorian Eastern spider orchid, and finding out how fire affects mycorrhizal fungi, which the orchids depend on for survival. The Helen Macpherson Smith Trust has provided a grant of $17,000 for costs in the second year of this $200,000 project.
Bushfires, controlled or wild, occur in orchid habitats but little is known of the effect of fire on native orchid populations and nothing is known of the effect of fire on mycorrhizal fungi. Without this information, threatened populations may become extinct and current conservation practices may be futile. Information gained in the study will be essential for improving land management practices, both locally and globally, in determining when and how often controlled burning should be conducted. Contributors to the project include the Royal Botanic Gardens (Melbourne), Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew, UK), Australian Native Orchid Society, Department of Sustainability & Environment, and the Arthur Rylah Institute.
The overall project will aim to extend beyond three years as a long term monitoring project by government and volunteer groups. With rising environmental concerns such as global climate change, drought and unpredictable wild bushfires, community awareness on the impact of land management practices on our native habitats will improve our understanding of the environment and its inhabitants. Ultimately, long term monitoring will be informative for resolving future environmental problems and can be applied to other flora and fauna communities.
www.rmit.edu.au
The Trust is funding a two-year demonstration project to assist African women on the Carlton Estate to find jobs. The Church of All Nations, a parish mission of the Uniting Church of Australia which is located on the Estate, was granted $50,000 for this project which identifies employment as the means to reduce poverty and enhance social inclusion.
The Carlton Estate is a public housing site located in the inner Melbourne suburb of the same name. Research commissioned by the Church in 2008 confirmed the high rate of unemployment and underemployment on the Carlton Estate, as well as clear service gaps currently existing in efforts to tackle unemployment within refugee and African communities.
In response, the Church believes that an innovative social program is required to address the discrimination in the labour market and the barriers facing the African community in mainstream job referral and employment opportunities. In an approach that has been strongly supported by church, welfare and potential partner agencies, it proposes that new institutional arrangements are needed in Carlton to broker opportunities at the community level.
The project aims to meet concrete job targets with industries that are both experiencing labour demand and within those industries with firms that have existing arrangements in supporting newly arrived migrants and refugees.
The project has three major tasks: to develop partnerships with traders, target employers, industry bodies, trade unions and training providers, and set job targets to provide new employment opportunities for African women on the Carlton Estate; to seek out potential employers in selected industries to develop consultative arrangements for participation in the project; and to engage local agencies and service providers in partnerships to extend services such as child care for African women and their families.
The program will complement work being done by other agencies on the Estate in different areas and will run throughout 2009-2010.
http://carlton-uca.org/