THE Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative has received more than $700,000 from the state government to upskill and grow its workforce.
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The funding came from the Victorian government's $40 million Aboriginal Workforce Fund.
BDAC chief executive Raylene Harradine said the $700,625 would go towards setting up the organisation for the future.
"It's not just about training up people to be social workers," she said.
"It's about really investing in that critical part of the organisation because its our back of house and governance that's going to take us through to the future."
Ms Harradine said the BDAC would use the funding for three areas - to build up cultural training, to increase the skills and capability of the BDAC workforce, and to ensure the governance structure would be strong going forward.
"We need to ensure the whole service is culturally safe so if Aboriginal people come to our organisation or if they go to mainstream services, they know its fine to go there," she said.
"The second part is about making sure our team is deadly skilled and supported. It's to ensure our current and future workforce are trained so they have the flexibility to do their jobs.
Read more: Works underway at BDAC early learning centre
"The third part is about governance and leadership because we need to take a look at who will take us forward. We need to ensure we have a strong succession plan in place from a governance level."
Member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards said BDAC was one of 44 Victorian organisations to receive money from the Aboriginal Workforce fund.
"We want to ensure Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-Operative can create a stronger workforce to better serve the Greater Bendigo Aboriginal community," she said.
"This has never been more important after the year we just had."
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