BIKE-LOVING veterans will use $5000 in new grants on a new retreat bringing former servicemen and women together in Myers Flat.
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The Veterans Motorcycle Club is among central Victorian groups sharing in the federal government's $137,541 volunteer grants program.
"We are establishing a retreat in Myers Flat called Central Station", VMC Central Victoria club president Jay Lindley said.
"It's basically a place where people can go to get away from the world and just recharge."
The funds will help the club fit out a building already on site with walls, water and electrics, Mr Lindley said.
The retreat is set on one-and-a-half acres and is for families as well as veterans from across Victoria.
A similar space in Melbourne has already become a haven for people, many of whom struggle with bureaucratic nightmares as they seek support for issues with roots in their time serving the nation, Mr Lindley said.
"Those conversations really help. Dealing with any government is overwhelming, with the amount of layers," he said.
Meanwhile, Bendigo Family and Financial Services will get $5000 to help volunteers giving members of the public emergency relief and financial counselling.
The group's chief executive Jenny Elvey said the grants would allow volunteers to keep giving out food and care packages to vulnerable people most at risk of financial exclusion and disadvantage.
"We need to do police checks when we get new volunteers, so it will cover that. It will also cover petrol costs," she said.
"We do a lot of food pickups from different places around Bendigo. Plus, we deliver.
"In the last few months we have been delivering a lot more because many older people aren't comfortable jumping on a bus and coming in to get food, or aren't well enough, or their families are isolating at home."
The Eaglehawk Community House is getting $5000 to help train volunteers and help them deliver food relief for vulnerable members of the public.
It came at the end of two "enormous" years of COVID-19 food relief for vulnerable people, along with other help, Tracey Moss said.
"We are getting to a point where we need to upgrade and update everything on volunteer training. We also have new staff members which will allow us to engage with more volunteers," she said.
Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters welcomed the funding. Her office helped some groups find the pools of money that were available.
The member of the opposition said there was room to make the grants more effective - and not just with even bigger funding pools for more community groups.
"I think there needs to be an opportunity for groups to apply for continuous funding, perhaps on a three or five year agreement," Ms Chesters said.
"That would help groups that have established funding, so that they are not reliant on applying for these grants every year and hoping it comes through.
"We've had these volunteer grants now since Julia Gillard was prime minister and every year we are asking whether they will return the next year."
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