PrintGrants for migrant community services
Objective
Ensure that funding agreements and work programs are satisfactorily delivered for all Settlement Grants Program (SGP) and Community Settlement Services Scheme (CSSS) grants.
Description
The Australian Government provides funding for grants to community-based organisations under the SGP and CSSS. Funded organisations establish links with mainstream services to facilitate direct and independent access to these services for their clients.
Settlement services target groups include:
- permanent residents who have arrived in the previous five years as Humanitarian Program entrants and Family Stream migrants with low English proficiency
- dependants of skilled migrants in rural and regional areas with low English proficiency
- communities that require assistance to develop their capacity to organise, plan and advocate for services to meet their own needs, and are receiving significant numbers of new arrivals who meet other settlement services target group criteria.
Eligible organisations are funded to provide the following settlement services:
- provision of information, referral and casework services to new arrivals
- community capacity building
- service planning, participation and integration.
Under the SGP, funding to organisations is made on a project basis, with priorities for particular regions and communities determined by an annual planning process. This process identifies changing settlement patterns and priority needs of new arrivals, to which SGP services respond.
Payment of funding to SGP and CSSS organisations depends on the organisations meeting required performance measures. They must report quarterly, providing information on the progress of the work program, financial details and statistical data on client contact. The department holds regular consultations with funded organisations to help them meet their performance requirements.
Performance
In 2007–08, $32 million was provided for migrant community services. A total of 332 funding agreements provided settlement services under the SGP and CSSS.
Settlement Grants Program
The department introduced the SGP on 1 July 2006. It was developed following a review of settlement services, detailed in the Report of the Review of Settlement Services for Migrants and Humanitarian Entrants, published in May 2003.
The SGP combines funding previously provided to Migrant Resource Centres, Migrant Service Agencies and the CSSS.
Table 86: Grants for migrant community services—performance information| Measures | Results |
|---|---|
| Quality | |
| Work program objectives and requirements are met by funded organisations | Funding agreements and work programs satisfactorily delivered for all SGP and CSSS grants |
| Quantity | |
| Number of grants administered | 332 work programs funded, comprising 307 SGP and 25 CSSS grants |
