Thousands of Canberrans dependent on the services and advice provided by a galaxy of small, voluntary and not-for-profit self-help organisations will be breathing more freely today.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
This is because the ACT government has, belatedly and only after pressure from this newspaper, thrown out a lifeline to SHOUT (Canberra Self Help Organisations United Together) that will enable it to continue operating for the immediate future.
The minuscule organisation, which employs just two staff and runs on a budget of less than $130,000 a year, had been on the cusp of closure after being defunded by the Barr government as part of the transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Despite an outcry through the news and letters pages of The Canberra Times, by dozens of individuals who relied on the support service, the government waited until the 11th hour to offer practical assistance despite having been made aware of SHOUT's looming existential crisis last August.
On Tuesday evening ACT Disability, Children and Youth Minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith MLA, told SHOUT the government would provide transitional funding to keep the doors open while a sustainable arrangement was worked out.
It is understood this will involve a "new business model which provides sustainability into the future and transition for all members (of SHOUT)".
The tiny non-profit, which provides administrative assistance and other support for at least 47 self-help organisations with more than 6,000 members, has run on the smell of an oily rag for more than 35 years.
Organisers had pared the budget for the coming year down to just $110,000 in their last ditch bid to secure bridging funding. The multiplier effect this small amount has on the myriad community organisations it supports should have been clear to all as soon as the funding issue became apparent.
SHOUT, a truly community based organisation that has grown from very humble origins, apparently did not tick the right boxes to qualify for ongoing funding under the existing parameters set by the ACT's labyrinthine and occasionally impenetrable bureaucracy.
It appears the powers that be within that bureaucracy then concluded it was easier to let a valued support agency, which delivered a high level of services across a diverse range of groups including the ACT Down Syndrome Association, Canberra Region Kidney Support Group, Heart Support Australia, Parkinson's ACT, Diabetes ACT and many others, to wither and die than to revisit those parameters.
In a victory for common sense that decision has apparently now been reversed. This could be the result of wiser, or at least more politically astute, heads concluding that to proceed along those lines could suggest the government was disengaged from its community to a startling degree.
The big challenge is to come up with an ongoing funding model that is palatable to both SHOUT and the bureaucracy that doesn't involve destroying the organisation in the name of saving it.
The Canberra Times will continue to watch and report on future developments with interest.
