Supporting Community Action
Supporting Community Action
Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare has continued supporting is large network of volunteers through the Coffs Harbour City Council Environmental Levy
Making a Difference -
LLCI033-064
The issue
In 2008 Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare (CHRL) had approximately 250 volunteer members and 50 landcare sites on public lands - all of which required significant support. A Community Support Officer (CSO) was funded by the Northern Rivers CMA for community capacity building but there was no direct funding for coordinating volunteers. CHRL had to find a way to continue to coordinate and support our many volunteers and sites.
The solution
Since 2000 CHRL had been receiving small amounts of funding from the Coffs Harbour City Council's Environmental Levy (EL) to assist with on ground works. As much of our volunteer work occurred on council managed land it was decided that in our 2009/10 EL application we would include in addition a fee for services to Coffs Harbour City Council (CHCC) for providing natural resource outcomes on Council managed lands. CHCC accepted our application which allowed CHRL to employ a Volunteer Support Officer.
The impact
Since the 2009/10 EL round we have continued to apply for and receive this funding every year. Currently this provides:
- Volunteer support by Landcare officers for 2 days/week
- Administration support
- Volunteer training
- Tools/materials used by volunteers
- PPE - coverall, hats, gloves etc
- Bush regeneration contractor site support
CHRL now has a very strong partnership with CHCC and have developed a MoU with both Council and NPWS ( on whose land we also work), which outlines the roles and responsibilities for the management of volunteers and work sites.
Key facts
- Volunteer support funded through EL for 7 years
- Receive more than $1 million from EL since 2000
- In 2016/17 volunteers carried out 13,750 hours of work
- For every $1 of EL funding CHRL attracted another $5.00 (includes volunteer hours, other paid hours and grants)