Current ACTCOSS Projects:

• Sector Development Program
• Home and Community Care (HACC) Program
• Raising the Standard
• "Building Better Boards": The Governance Program
• Indigenous Program
• Food and Nutrition Project
• Adult Literacy Project
• Poverty Data Project
• Auspice: Women and Prisons Group
• Auspice: Community Development Network

Past Projects

The ACTCOSS sector development program provides information, training and support to community organisations to help them develop their organisation and services. The program includes the provision of professional development seminars on relevant topics, providing one-on-one support to community organisations to assist them with challenges in their organisation, small projects that identify and support capacity building, as well as the development of resources that organisations can use to improve their services.

For more information on sector development, visit the Organisations Information Kit, or contact us. The sector development program is supported by the Community Services Program which is funded by the ACT Government.

The ACTCOSS Home and Community Care (HACC) Program provides networking opportunities, training and support to organisations funded through the HACC program. The HACC program is a joint initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments to provide support and dignity to older people, people with disabilities and their carers, particularly through the provision of services to allow people to remain in their own homes.

ACTCOSS facilitates the Home and Community Care and Disability Services Network and Working Group, which both meet monthly to provide networking opportunities, information sharing and collaboration between HACC and Disability funded agencies to better support the users of their services. We also provide professional development opportunities developed for the staff of HACC services, and one-on-one consultancy services to provide customised support to organisations to overcome the challenges they face. The program also hosts an annual HACC sector planning day, and you can download the reports of these days from the Home and Community Care section of our Papers and Reports webpage.

For more information on the Home and Community Care program, please contact us.

ACTCOSS provides training and support in the use of "Raising the Standard": a manual to guide quality improvement in ACT community service organisations. "Raising the Standard" was developed by the ACT government in consultation with the community sector to provide a process and reference document to help organisations implement good practice, and includes a range of tools that support the self-assessment and planning process.

You can download copies of "Raising the Standard" from the Standards page of our Organisations Information Kit. ACTCOSS conducts seminars on implementing Raising the Standard, as well as providing consultancy services for organisations wanting individual support.

For more information on "Raising the Standard", please contact us. Our "Raising the Standard" service is supported by the Community Services Program which is funded by the ACT Government.

ACTCOSS provides seminars and consultancy services to help improve the skills and professionalism of community sector boards and management committees. In an increasingly complex world of funding agreements, regulation, financial systems and legal responsibilities having some help with understanding your role as a board member and developing skills as a board member can pay dividends well into the future for your organisation.

For more information, please contact us, or visit the Boards section of the Organisations Information Kit. The program is supported by the Community Services Program which is funded by the ACT Government.

The ACTCOSS Indigenous Program is designed to assist community organisations funded by the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) to improve their ability to support and provide better outcome for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people using SAAP services.

The Program includes the production of a number of tools and resources to help services to adapt their organisation to the need of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, direct consultancy support in implementing changes in organisations, delivery of training in cultural awareness for community workers, and supporting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers in the sector.

For more information about the program, please contact us. The ACTCOSS Indigenous Program is funded by the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, a joint initiative of the Australian and State/Territory Governments.

The ACTCOSS Food and Nutrition project brings together workers across the community sector who are involved in providing food to people experiencing disadvantage, as well as who are involved in promoting health eating and good nutrition. The project includes the development of the Community Food Guide website, as well as hosting the Community Food Forum and delivering appropriate professional development seminars on issues about food and nutrition.

For more information about the project, please contact us. The project is funded by a Health Promotion Grant from ACT Health.

This project is a study which explores options for strengthening adult literacy education in the ACT through community partnerships. The aim is to identify strategies for developing partnerships between adult literacy providers and community organisations as a way of bringing about a greater take-up of literacy learning by community organisations' service users.

The project involves:

• reviewing and documenting barriers to access to literacy services for disadvantaged groups;
• exploring the extent to which community organisations could and did promote access to literacy services among their service users;
• developing models of collaboration in service delivery that would improve access to, and take-up of, literacy services; and
• recommending models of service provision that would assist service users to access literacy services.

For more information about the project, please contact us. ACTCOSS receives funding under the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations' (DEEWR's) 2007 Adult Literacy National Project.

This project involves working with the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra (NATSEM) to produce additional statistics and information on the level and extent of disadvantage in the ACT. The project has two stages. The first stage, release in 2007, examines the characteristics of ACT households who have incomes in the lowest 20% of people nationwide. The second stage looks at changing prices and expenditure patterns among low income households. We hope to release this information by the end of 2007.

You can download the report of Stage 1 of the Project:

Characteristics of Low Income ACT Households

For more information on this project, please contact us. The project was funded by a University of Canberra Industry Collaborative Research Grant in partnership with ACTCOSS, and the generous support of the following organisations:

• The ACT Community Inclusion Board
• Communities@Work
• Softlaw Community Projects
• YWCA of Canberra
• Innanna Inc.
• Woden Community Service
• Lifeline Canberra
• Gungahlin Community Regional Service

ACTCOSS auspices the ACT Women and Prisons Group by helping manage their finances and supporting their meetings. The Group works alongside women with lived experience of the criminal justice system to advocate for their rights, provide emotional and practical support and inform them about relevant women’s services.

For more information about the group, contact us.

ACTCOSS auspices the ACT and Region Community Development Network, by managing their finances and providing a meeting space for the group. The network hold forums and supports discussion around the theory and practice of community development, and helps community development workers stay in touch and communicate.

The network is well known for its popular e-mail network, CDNet, which you can join by visiting the CDNet homepage. For more information, please contact us.

• Organisations Information Kit (online resource kit for organisations)
• SAAP Referral Guide
• Community Sector Futures - ACTCOSS Conference 2008