Help us decide which charities to donate to!

Melbourne's Gateway Centre is one of the few places left in Australia that offers people with a diverse range of disabilities a long term job with real training.

Friends of the Earth believe that environmental problems and social problems need to be looked at together to develop sustainable long term solutions. From protecting forests, speaking out on dirty coal and climate refugees to facilitating land management practices with traditional owers, FoE is there. Following on from the Food cooperative and bookshop, the new Eco Market (sustainable supermarket project) demonstrates how FoE offers positive solutions.

Trees For Life is a South Australian community environmental organisation, whose members are helping to save the environment - since 1981 they have grown 29 million native seedlings to plant on cleared land, subsidised the planting of 98,000 trees and shrubs to absorb and offset carbon emissions and carried out bushcare work on 4,500 hectares of remnant native vegetation. Help them to do more to save Australia's flora and fauna.

This charity is doing the most amazing advocacy work on behalf of factory farmed animals by bringing the institutionalised suffering of animals to the forefront of Australia’s agenda; ensuring that animal protection is the next great social justice movement.

Voiceless is an independent non-profit dedicated to alleviating the suffering of animals in Australia.

Voiceless envisions a world in which animals are treated with respect and compassion.

Please include these guys on you vote card next month.

Visit: www.voiceless.org.au

Menzies Inc are a fantastic organisation in the Frankston-Mornington Peninsula are that runs animal therapy for children 8-12 years who come from backgrounds of domestic violences. This is the only help for these kids in the area and there are no government funds going into the program. And there are always more kids needing help than places available ... unless they find more money. You can also help by visiting the Sages Cottage Farm Cafe from 10am - 3pm on Fridays and Saturdays ... Sages Road, Baxter (just off the Moorooduc Highway).

SHINE for Kids is a small, community-based not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting children who have a parent in prison to break the cycle of following in their parents footsteps.

Why should we help children of criminals, you say? These children are innocent victims of their parents' crimes. They face teasing, stigma, social isolation, grief, anxiety and the loss of a parent / breadwinner usually leads to financial disadvantage aswell. Some have witnessed violent crimes and arrests. Many start behaving badly and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Without intervention, they are five times more likely to end up in prison than other children.
  
SHINE for Kids early intervention programs help these kids to maintain positive family relationships, process difficult emotions and meet other children in similar circumstances. Our programs are based on the question of ‘What is in the best interest of each individual child?’ We rely heavily on trained volunteers and the support of compassionate donors to keep our programs running.

There are an estimated 17,000 children each year in New South Wales alone who are affected by the imprisonment of a parent. Last year, SHINE for Kids supported 1500 of these children. Help us help more of these kids break the cycle of following in their parents footsteps through crime and imprisonment.

Clean Ocean Foundation is a fantstic organisation trying to clean up our oceans. Their prime objective is to protect our ocean ecosystem, establish sustainable water management practices and close Australia’s ocean outfalls. These wastewater outfalls are the single greatest source of ocean pollution in Australia, yet virtually every Australian would have swum, surfed or fished near one of the 144 outfalls around our country.

Making the world a better place includes helping those less fortunate than ourselves. This charity helps tireless missionaries in remote areas. $50 pays travelling expenses for missionaries on Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin. $1,000 assists in construction of a hospital wing in Tanzania. $2,350 builds a rainwater tank in Uganda. And best part is hardly any part of donation gets lost in administration costs.

The Centre for Policy Development is a not for profit public research centre which seeks to create fair and sustainable policy change by challenging the short-sighted nature of current national policy and injecting creative, viable and sustainable ideas into the policy process. They are a young and exciting NGO who are making a really valuable contribution and I think they would be very deserving of your donation.

CPD is a charitable think tank that encourages the development of innovative and creative ideas about important issues facing all Australians, like health, the economy and climate change. CPD is unique in that it enables voices to be heard from all different backgrounds, empowering our democratic system. CPD is important because it doesn't focus on short term outcomes- it is dedicated to long term community development.

The Bridge Project actively seeks to reduce youth crime through social and economic engagement of young offenders in education, training and employment. The project is a successful innovative community approach providing meaningful work opportunites to young offenders trapped in the recurring cycle of crime, poverty and imprisonment. It provides pportunity for social and economic participation and creates a safer and healthier community for all.

The Big Issue in Australia is a not-for-profit organisation and social enterprise that empowers homeless and marginalised people to make positive changes in their lives by using different mechanisms to connect people with the community, such as the Street Magazine Enterprise or the Street Soccer Program.

I think The Big Issue should be in the vote because they really do help people help themselves. Go to www.bigissue.org.au for more information.

Thanks so much to those of you who've provided these suggestions - lots of great organisations doing some fantastic work!

We've just announced a new set of organisations for September & October, including some of those suggested here.

So please go ahead and vote in the new poll, and look out for another round of suggestions for November & December!