Volunteer groups in the Blue Mountains have received more than $40,000 in funding following recommendations from Federal Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman.

The groups successfully applied for funding under the 2019/20 Volunteer Grants program, which sees $66,000 distributed to help community organisations to support the efforts of volunteers and increase volunteering participation.

“I was really pleased to be able support our local volunteers with these grants, which have been used for everything from mental health and first aid training, to IT equipment, gardening equipment and tools,” Ms Templeman said.

“I was particularly pleased to meet with members of the Glenbrook and District Historical Society recently, who received $2650 for a camera, microphone and headphones for volunteers to use.

“But $66,000 is really nowhere near enough. My office received more than 70 expressions of interests from groups with a value of $240,000 in projects to benefit the community. Data also showed that 70 per cent of these organisations have been unsuccessful in previous rounds. 

“I have again written to the Minister for Families and Social Services to raise my concerns about the inadequacies in the nomination processes of the 2019/20 round of funding and highlighted the important volunteer groups who missed out on funding because there was not enough available.

“I was inundated with eligible project ideas when I promoted the volunteer grants program in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury, and as I explained to the Minister in February, this demonstrates a need to drastically increase the funding available under this scheme.

“I hope the government will extend financial support to those essential community gro