Canberra charity Kidsafe ACT - dedicated to preventing childhood injury with services including infant and child car seat installation - could be forced to close by the end of the year due to insufficient funding by the ACT government.
The much-loved organisation is seeking an increase of recurrent funding from the government to $400,000 a year, the requested boost "less than five per cent of the funding that will be provided to the horse racing industry next financial year".
Kidsafe is launching a petition that, in hard-hitting terms, calls on the government to provide adequate funding "so that we can deliver the programs that will keep kids safe and alive - instead of in hospital or potentially dead".
Kidsafe ACT chief executive Francis Ventura said the charity, which had just been "keeping its head above water", had been forced to go public after getting nowhere with the Barr Labor government.
"Based on our interactions with the ACT government, I'm concerned that the importance of child accident prevention is not being viewed as a priority - a view inconsistent with the many thousands of Canberrans who have a baby or child as a loved one, such as a parent, carer or grandparent," Mr Ventura said.
Kidsafe had met with Murrumbidgee Labor MLA Chris Steel and ACT Health executives with no result as yet.
An ACT government spokesperson said "ACT Health is in ongoing discussions with Kidsafe ACT".
"Compared with other jurisdictions, the ACT government provides the second highest level of funding to Kidsafe on a per capita basis," the spokesperson said.
"However, we recognise the pressures many local community organisations are currently under.
"ACT Health will continue to work with Kidsafe ACT to understand its financial situation and how best to ensure child safety services continue to be available to the ACT community."
The government says funding provided in 2023-24 is "$196,800 ex GST, including indexation".
Mr Ventura said the same response of "ongoing conversations" had previously been given to him.
"That doesn't fill me with optimism," he said.
The Pearce-based Kidsafe, which has operated for more than 40 years, also wants to establish a drop-in centre at the North Canberra Hospital and a second, fully operational centre at Mitchell.
That was to make its services more accessible to people living in the heart of what is now Nappy Valley, in the northern suburbs of Canberra.
Mr Ventura, who is also a teacher, said staff members at Kidsafe were being paid "$2 above the minimum award wage", the not-for-profit unable to pay more due to "chronic underfunding", like many others in the community sector. Staff stayed because they were passionate about the work and did not want Kidsafe to close.
"They would earn more stacking shelves at ALDI, for example. It's not good enough," he said.
Kidsafe was "at breaking point".
"Unfortunately, Kidsafe ACT is on track to potentially close by the end of the year due to funding constraints," he said.
"While a portion of our revenue comes from service provision and sales, this is nowhere near sufficient to cover even partial expenses, meaning that an investment from the government is needed.
"Given that Kidsafe delivers a critical public service that helps to keep children alive and away from emergency rooms, that support through public funding is justifiable."
As well as fitting car seats, Kidsafe educates parents and the public about child safety, from batteries to bath-time.
Kidsafe worker Natalie Hood works a second job so she can continue to work at Kidsafe. She has a science degree and earned more in the public service but she feels a calling from Kidsafe.
"I'm passionate about child safety. I've got two kids and I just know the risks that are involved in a car accident," she said.
"I want to make sure as many children as possible can be just as safe as my kids."
Mr Ventura said the closure of Kidsafe would be "catastrophic" for Canberra.
"Evidence shows that around 90 per cent of car seats currently in use are ill-fitted or not fit for purpose, such as being broken or out of date. In some cases, the child seat can actually exacerbate the injury or risk of death in the event of a crash," he said.
"However, a correctly-fitted seat gives a child a 70 per cent better chance of surviving a crash unharmed. Given that Kidsafe ACT conducts thousands of consultations every year, and given that there were over 1100 car accidents across the nation in 2023, it's inevitable that a life will have been saved specifically because of our work."
- Kidsafe petition: https://forms.gle/YuEu4Abj14mkMszV8
