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Jenny Holdem is a Volunteer Coordinator for Uniting Vic Tas. Uniting is the community services arm of the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania. It has been supporting Australians for over 100 years. They are 7000 skilled, passionate and creative people providing over 770 programs and services. There were 21 UnitingCare agencies, Wesley Mission Victoria, Share and UnitingCare Victoria and Tasmania Early Childhood Services, which came together to become Uniting.Jenny has been working in Aged Care and managing volunteers for 30 years. There has been significant changes in the Federal Government's aged care sector. Clients have access to a fixed amount of funding and can apply to a number of service providers for the services that best meets their needs.
Because the sector is very competitive, organisations such as Uniting rely heavily on volunteers. However the supply of volunteers is limited because people are retiring much later in their working life. As well as providing social support through traditional means such as by phone or personal visiting, Uniting also helps facilitate social interaction between clients that is self-sustaining and can involve a large group of clients.
You can find out more about Uniting here.