With much of Queensland and parts of New South Wales starting to recover from the recent disastrous floods, and regional Victoria in the middle of a flood crisis, tens of thousands of Australians have been directly affected, and many more have suffered.   These flood victims will need ongoing support and assistance for weeks and probably months to come, but what are the best ways to offer (and ask for) help ?

Financial Donations

Flood relief appeals such as the Qld Flood Appeal and the Victorian Flood Appeal (managed by the Red Cross) have done a superb job at raising funds to help support flood victims, and these appeals are clearly the best way for you to make financial donations.

Business Support

The recently announced Qld Flood National Business Donations Register offers a great method for businesses to offer support to flood victims (Australia wide), with many businesses already offering pledges for a wide variety of products and services.

How Can Ordinary Aussies Help?

There are still plenty of ordinary Australians desperate to help, but not sure how to  .  However, it is still very difficult for individuals, many of whom live in or near flood affected areas, to find out the best way they can help and support their local community.

if you have muscle or manpower to volunteer you can register with Volunteering QLD who are coordinating volunteer efforts in Queensland, but there are plenty of other ways that you can provide practical, hands on support for flood victims.  It is often the simple, seemingly little things, that can make the biggest difference in supporting those affected by floods.

An innovative new service called HelpOut, has been established specifically to connect those people who need help with those who are able to provide help.  This service allows individuals living in or near flood affected communities, to list the types of help they can offer.  Perhaps more importantly though, HelpOut also allows those people directly affected by flood, many of whom are in desperate need of assistance, to specify exactly the type of assistance that they need.

HelpOut allows people to search by location (town, suburb or postcode), and presents offers and calls for help on a map – so it is very easy to see what help is available (or need) in specific areas.

If you Need Help

If you have been affected by the floods and are in need of something specific, you can create a Help Wanted listing for free on HelpOut (or if you don’t have internet access, get a friend to do it on your behalf).  Enter your street name and town/suburb, a description of what you need, and (if you want) a contact number.  Your listing will be presented to anyone searching your area to see how they can help, they can then contact you (via our internal message system) to offer their services and exchange contact details.

If you want to Help

First of all, search your local area in HelpOut for Help Wanted listings to see if there is anyone seeking assistance already.  If there is already a listing for someone you can help, you can contact them and discuss how you can offer assistance directly.  If not, you can create a Help Offered Listing (for free) outlining what you have to offer and what area you are able to provide it.

HelpOut has been developed specifically to make it easier for local communities to help themselves. By putting people wanting to help, directly in touch with those needing help, we ensure that the support that is needed can be given to those who most need it.

For a list of suggestions as to how you may be able to help see : How You Could Help

Posted via email from SpaceOut - Space for Rent

In response to the QLD Floods, SpaceOut has launched a new section of the site – called HelpOut (http://helpout.spaceout.com.au) – aimed at getting help to those people affected by flood.

SpaceOut is very good at hooking up people who have something, with those that need something. HelpOut extends on this functionality, and helps local communities help themselves, by assisting the people who really need it.

We have already had a fabulous response – with hundreds of listings offering help. However, we currently have very few listing from people seeking help, as many of the flood victims are still without power/internet, and are busy dealing with other issues.

Help Wanted Listings are being taken up very quickly – evidence that people are keen to help, but need guidance as to how, where and when they can provide assistance.

Now and in the coming weeks and months, home and business owners affected by flood waters will continue to need assistance, in many different ways to put them on the road back to a normal life. The types of assistance required is going to become clearer as the massive coordinated volunteer programs wind down, and new, more localised and specific needs for help become apparent.

HelpOut is perfect for putting people offering help, in touch with those needing it – within their own local communities.

What Can You Do?

Obviously you should donate to the Flood Appeal if you can afford to. You should also get involved in volunteer programs (through Volunteering QLD for example). But one of the best ways you can make HelpOut as effective as possible, is to simply spread the word – particularly to those people who have been directly affected.

To help spread the word you can do any (or all) of the following :

• Email a link to this post to friends, family, colleagues and contacts, or pick up the phone and tell them about it.
• If you have friends or family directly affected by floods, consider posting a listing on HelpOut on their behalf (it’s free)
• Talk about HelpOut on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter (we’ve added Facebook Share and Tweet buttons to the HelpOut site to make this easier for you)
• Download, Print off, and post up this Flyer in your workplace or around your local community, and in particular around flood affected communities
• Phone up talk back radio and contact you mates in the media to let them know about this free service
• Let us know of anything we could do to improve or promote HelpOut

We are confident, that with the support of SpaceOut members, and the community in general, that HelpOut can make a significant impact in flood affected communities on the road back to normality.

Posted via email from SpaceOut - Space for Rent

Posted via email from SpaceOut - Space for Rent

The rains that have caused the devastating QLD Floods appear to be moving south and have now also spread over the New South Wales border, with the Richmond River at Kyogle measured still rising, while Lismore is among the larger towns in the firing line of the Wilsons River.  The Brunswick River, which runs through Mullumbimby, is also liable to burst its banks, according to the weather bureau.

So far towns on the New South Wales north coast have escaped flooding, but if rains that are currently battering SE QLD and Northern NSW continue, it seems likely that areas of northern NSW will also experience floods.

A practical way to support NSW Flood Victims

It is very encouraging to see the level of financial support being provided throughout Australia via the various Flood Relief Appeals. However, with expected  flooding in and around NSW, with many  residents and business owners facing weeks and possibly months of ongoing hardship, there are many members of the local communities who are willing to lend a helping hand, but are not quite sure how to go about it.

Financial donations are obviously best to be made to the Flood Appeal, however it is not usually possible to ensure that these types of donations make it back to the local communities.

Donations of goods and items raise logistical issues with collection and distribution, but there are still plenty of things  members of the NSW communities are able to offer on a more practical and hands on level.  The problem is really how to match up the people wanting to help, with those who need the help.

HelpOut offers a simple way for Local Communities to help themselves

With the goal of making it easier for flood affected communities to help themselves, we have created a Free online service called HelpOut.  This service is aimed primarily at people living and working in their local community.

The types of offers of help that we anticipate will be placed on HelpOut are not just items or goods, but also offers of other practical and “hands on” support such as :

• Looking after a pet until the owner gets settled
• Washing and drying a load of washing
• Popping round (or an invitation over) for a home cooked meal
• Hosting a DVD night with popcorn to help things get back to normal
• Lending a car or trailer for a day or two
• etc..

In a nutshell HelpOut works like this :

• People wanting to Help can easily create a Free listing on HelpOut which explains how (and where) they can help.

• People needing a hand simply search in their local area to see who might be able to assist them.  If there is nothing currently listed that matches their needs, they can create  a Help wanted listing (for Free) outlining what type of items or service they need.

• Listings can include contact details, or if people prefer to keep their contact details private they can use our internal (anonymous) message system until they are ready to exchange contact details.

HelpOut has only recently been launched and so far, has relatively few entries, but we expect this to grow quickly, and for HelpOut to be most effective,  the people living and working in or near flood affected areas need to be made aware of this service.  One of the best ways you can help  those people who have been directly affected by the floods and need a hand, and those who have not sufferer so badly, but are willing and able to offer assistance, is to let them know about this service.

We would appreciate if you could take a look at HelpOut at http://helpout.spaceout.com.au and if you think that it could be of benefit to your local community, please spread the word by telling people about it, and forwarding on post to your friends, colleagues and contacts in and around flood affected areas.

We’ve also created a Help for Flood Victims flyer which you may like to print off, and post up in your workplace or around your local community.

Posted via email from SpaceOut - Space for Rent