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Home > Ministers > The Hon Justine Elliot MP, Minister for Ageing > Media Hub > Community Partners Program: Helping Older People from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds

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PDF printable version of Community Partners Program: Helping Older People from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds (PDF 21 KB)

18 April 2009

The Australian Government is calling for applications for the next round of the Community Partners Program (CPP) – for projects to help older people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

More than 740 projects have received financial support through CPP since January 2005.

The Australian Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot made the formal announcement in a speech at the Lions Club of Sydney Pacific 13th anniversary ball in Sydney.

Since the Community Partners Program started, funded organisations have linked with specialist groups such as Alzheimers Australia and the Cancer Council, providing briefings about available aged care services, and conditions such as dementia to more than 300 different community groups. These were delivered in a range of languages.

Numerous documents and publications have also been translated into various languages, including “Options in Aged Care” handbook has been translated into 19 languages with more than 70,000 copies distributed.

“This program is about helping people find the services that are available to them,” Mrs Elliot said.

The 2006 Census reported that almost a quarter (22 per cent) of the people in Australia were born overseas.
CPP is designed to:

• Provide more aged care support services delivering culturally appropriate care to older persons from culturally and linguistically diverse communities;
• Increase access to culturally appropriate aged care support services for older people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities; and
• Give older people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities greater capacity to make informed decisions about aged care support services.

Since the beginning of the CPP, 743 individual projects have been undertaken with the funding provided. These include:

• 272 projects for service provision and development;
• 160 projects involving networking;
• 98 projects for training; and
• 131 projects for resource development.

Organisations across Australia will be invited to apply for the $15 million project grants. Advertisements would appear in national, regional and multicultural newspapers on Saturday 25 April.

Projects to be considered include:

• Those that provide information on aged care services;
• Translation and referral services;
• Establishing partnerships between aged care providers and culturally and linguistically diverse communities; and
• A variety of innovative projects and strategies will be considered.

An independent competitive selection process would be coordinated by the Department of Health and Ageing to ensure applicants are given an equal opportunity to receive funding.

For more information, contact Mrs Elliot's office on (02) 6277 7280