Community Programs

Universities of the Third Age

The Victorian Government provides funding to support the Victorian network of Universities of the Third Age or U3As.

U3As are learning cooperatives of older people which encourage healthy ageing by enabling members to share educational, creative and leisure activities.

The U3A Network Victoria represents 97 U3As in Victoria with over 24,600 individual members.

You can find information about the U3A nearest you by calling the U3A Network on 9670 3659 or see U3A Network.

Participation for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Seniors

People from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds will make up an increasing proportion of older Victorians.

Research shows that being engaged in the community is vital older people’s ongoing health and wellbeing.The Participation for CALD seniors program aims to increase social participation of isolated older Victorians from CALD backgrounds by creating new opportunities to participate and improve information provision.

Small Grants Program

A four-year small grants program has been established to award up to $10,000 to eligible organisations for projects that create or expand social participation opportunities for isolated CALD seniors.

This grants program is currently closed for applications. The second round will be open for applications in March 2013.

To be added to the mailing list for information about the second round of the grants program, please contact Seniors Online.

Improving Liveability for Older People in Small Towns Initiative

The Improving Liveability for Older People (ILOP) initiative aims to assist small towns with a significant ageing population in regional Victoria by supporting the building of local government and community capacity to plan and deliver projects that will make a positive difference to the quality of life, social participation, health and well-being of older people.

The focus is on the following 17 shires: Southern Grampians, Pyrenees, Glenelg, Colac Otway, Surf Coast, South Gippsland, Strathbogie, Moira, Buloke, Gannawarra, Loddon, Central Goldfields, Alpine, Hindmarsh, Towong, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack.

The ILOP initiative provides an opportunity for these 17 shires to address some of the issues identified in their local area.

Grants up to $100,000 are available to each shire for the delivery of projects over two years, in two distinct program phases. First payments have been made to shires. They have now commenced community consultations to plan local projects.

The ILOP initiative will build on the achievements of the Positive Ageing in Local Communities (PALC) project, which was funded by the Victorian Government in partnership with the MAV and COTA Victoria from 2005-09.

As part of the PALC project, some local governments developed positive ageing strategies or plans that identified the local issues affecting their ageing population. Some of these strategies included appropriate action plans to address the identified issues.

Community Registers

Community Registers help people to feel secure and may give them more confidence to live on their own in their own homes. People who are older, have a disability or are isolated for any reason can put their name on their local register and can, if they choose, be contacted by telephone on a regular basis at agreed times to check on their well-being.

Registers hold people's contact and other information such as emergency contacts. There is no charge to register and it is voluntary.

Registers are mostly run and staffed by volunteers, and are a great way for people to volunteer in the local community.

Current community registers in Victoria

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