BacLinks launches 130 Community Link
03 December 2009
BacLinks launched the new and exciting Portland 130 Community Link on Tuesday 20 October thanks to the sponsorship of a Portland Aluminium ACTION Grant and support by Sandilands.
The BacLinks Program is aimed towards forming collaborations between business and community sectors to meet community need. The 130 Community Link will assist this process significantly and provide opportunities for the community to come together on a regular basis to share information and learn from each other.
“The 130 Community Link will seek to support and promote over 300 Portland and District community organisations and will strengthen and expand our existing associations with community to help us to meet both the needs of business and community,” said Ms Stewart, Portland BacLinks Project Officer.
“BacLinks has found that community organisations need advice and information to empower themselves, engage with business and survive financially” Ms Stewart went on to say. “The network will provide a forum to register community projects, meet with local funding sources and hear from guest speakers. Our first speaker is Community Governance expert, Andrew Wright, who will talk about constitutions, budgets, boards, policies etc.”
“BacLinks have also learned that business want to actively support their community but often do not have the time to find out what the real community needs are”.
Portland Aluminium Operations Manager Mr John Osborne stated that Baclinks assist Portland Aluminium to apply and share their core values through the sourcing of community projects for their Making the Link employee volunteering program.
“A community network will foster communication and support organisations with their planning and day to day operations, helping them to achieve their goals and objectives,” said Mr Osborne. “Our employee volunteers have assisted BacLinks with the development of the network and were hands on at the launch, enabling BacLinks to receive a $US1,500 ACTION grant from the Alcoa Foundation”.