Third Sector News

The closure of temporary housing villages in the Northern Rivers has raised questions about what happens to residents who cannot secure a long-term home. Temporary accommodation is intended to provide stability while people move towards permanent housing. But for some residents of the Northern Rivers’ pod villages, the transition out of temporary accommodation is creating another period of housing uncertainty.

While literacy is widely recognised as a fundamental human right, millions of children remain caught in an educational crisis that severely threatens their future. For the not-for-profit sector, low literacy remains one of the most pressing social and economic challenges confronting both local and global communities. The Australian Divide Australia is not exempt from this crisis.

For NFPs with limited time and resources, effective donor stewardship does not need to be complicated. A prompt, personal thank you can be the start of a stronger relationship. For many NFPs, fundraising naturally focuses on the next appeal, campaign or major gift. But what happens after someone gives? That period between donations is where organisations can build the relationship that encourages supporters to stay connected.

Women hold prominent leadership roles across major philanthropic organisations and collective giving groups, but their influence is not always reflected in how philanthropy is measured or recognised. Women are playing a significant role in Australian philanthropy, from leading foundations to shaping the growth of collective giving.

A will used to be something people put off until they felt old enough to need one. New data from online will platform Safewill suggests that’s changing, and the shift is showing up in an unexpected place: not the big capital cities, but the regional and coastal areas where Australians are choosing to start over.

Ask almost anyone working in child and family services what changes a young person’s life, and the answer comes back the same: relationships. It is in the research, the practice frameworks, the strategic plans and funding submissions. And yet the systems built around that conviction are organised for something else entirely: short contracts, rostered shifts, rotating staff and forms designed to demonstrate that something was done rather than that anyone stayed.

Community-sector leaders make difficult decisions every day. They stretch limited funding, protect service quality, manage volunteers, work with government and respond when people’s needs do not fit neatly inside a program model. Then they apply for a public-sector role and reduce all of that to: “managed stakeholders and delivered community outcomes”. That is the trap. The experience is relevant, but the language hides the leadership.

Violence against women can have serious consequences for the health and survival of their children, strengthening the case for family violence prevention to be treated as part of child health policy. A Curtin University-led systematic review has found that children whose mothers experienced intimate partner violence had higher odds of dying during infancy and early childhood. The review brought together 28 international studies involving more than 684,000 women and children.

Ask a child who has lived through violence what they actually need, and the answer tends to be strikingly simple: an adult who notices something is wrong, who believes them, and who follows through. Not a new department. Not another review. Just people who show up and keep their word.

More than 40,000 children and young people present alone to specialist homelessness services in Australia each year, the highest rate of any age group in the country. For many, the challenge isn’t just finding somewhere to sleep, but staying connected to school, work and community while everything else in their life is unstable. A funding package of more than $300 million through the Housing Australia Future Fund’s Crisis and Transitional Program is aimed squarely at that problem.