Evaluation of the Bringing them home and Indigenous mental health programs

7.2.5 Attracting supporting resources

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Some of the funded services have been able to attract supporting financial resources from OATSIH and other government and non-government organisations to support their Program activities. For example, some received grants under the Innovative Grants Program, which OATSIH administered in three rounds between 2001-2002 and 2003-2004 to a total of $2.1 million (the program has not been offered since that time). This program supported small one-off innovative projects that aimed to address the needs of those affected by the forced removal of children from their families. Projects that offered more traditional, culturally appropriate solutions to healing were funded, with preference given to those developed in collaboration with Link-Up services, Stolen Generations groups, and health services.

All OATSIH-funded programs are also now eligible to apply to OATSIH for Enhancement and Expansion funding, and a number of Link-Up services have received additional funds through this process. Enhancement and Expansion is a national resource allocation process, introduced by OATSIH in 2004-2005. It allocates funding to States/Territories in proportion to the current Aboriginal population (with adjustments made for existing levels of OATSIH grant funding and differences in costs as a result of geographic remoteness). State and Territory offices develop purchasing plans which identify their strategic priorities and foci based on available evidence and in consultation with Forums and Partnerships established under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Framework Agreements. Following approval of purchasing plans, individual project proposals are developed by State and Territory offices in consultation with Forums and relevant service delivery organisations. Funds for service delivery activities are made available to organisations following finalisation of funding agreement negotiations.

OATSIH funded services are also eligible to apply for funding for Quality Improvement initiatives under the SDRF. This funding provides services with the opportunity to conduct an organisational review, develop their own three year quality plan and a 12 month continuous Quality Improvement Action Plan.

While attracting supporting resources is not part of the official role of the services funded under any of the programs, it appears that a capacity to do this has assisted some services to conduct further activities which complement their core role.

One service which has been particularly successful in attracting supporting funding is Nunkuwarrin Yunti in Adelaide. The Link-Up Coordinator of this organisation (which includes the Link-Up, BTH and RC) takes on the role of identifying potential sources of funding from government and non-government sources, and submitting successful applications for this funding. (The Coordinator’s background in marketing has assisted in this role.) This has helped fund activities such as the Why Me? DVD about one member of the Stolen Generations and other family members, development of story boards to tell the stories of the Stolen Generations members, and in its SEWB RC role conducting training on an outreach basis.

There are however, some factors which make it less likely that services will be able to attract these supporting resources:

• there is varying skills and knowledge amongst the Link-Up and BTH services about potential funding sources and how to successfully apply for these
• this can be a time-consuming activity for staff who are hard-pressed with heavy caseloads
• there is no centralised source of information on funding sources for the services.

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