Supporting more than 4,000 job seekers with Project Placed
August 13th, 2024
Meet Project Placed
For people out of work, access to career and mental health support can be limited. Project Placed helps to bridge that gap by providing free career coaching and mental health services to anyone in Australia who is experiencing unemployment.
We interviewed Project Placed to learn more:
Introduction
Q: Tell us about your organisation
A: Project Placed is a charity that was founded in 2020. We provide free career coaching and mental health services to anyone in Australia who is out of work.
We are supported by a team of more than 50 coaches who offer Pro Bono resume reviews, job interview coaching, skills identification, career strategies, mindset coaching, and mental health support.
All our services are free of charge and delivered virtually, which allows us to help anyone who needs us right across Australia.
Q: What is your mission?
A: Our mission is to make sure that every person looking for work in Australia has access to independent, highly qualified coaches to help them not only cope in their time of need, but to thrive into the future.
We strongly believe that at the time you most need these services, you should not have to pay for them.
Q: What are your programs?
A: We offer 9 core services as well as webinars and in-person workshops.
These services include resume and cover letter reviews, LinkedIn profile help, skills identification, job interview preparation, career coaching, mindset coaching, executive career coaching, and mental wellbeing.
We find that along with tactical services like helping people with their resumes, managing an individual’s mindset and helping them find ways to cope through what can be a stressful time, is paramount.
Journey
Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve been able to overcome?
A: We’re tiny and poor! Despite this, we have delivered services to more than 4,000 job seekers across Australia. We have had to scale up quickly and do so with very little resources.
Fortunately, we have been blessed with a small army of volunteers; even some who were clients of ours and wanted to join us so that they could in-turn “pay it forward” to others.
Creating a charity and engaging volunteers has been a very steep learning curve, and a journey of constant learning.
Volunteer Involvement
Q: How do you involve volunteers?
A: Our entire organisation is run by volunteers, whether it is our board, admin team, or our coaches who deliver the end-user services. We are a member-based organisation, so volunteers are encouraged to become members and have a say in how we operate.
We also have a small community of practice amongst volunteers, where we meet up online once a month to discuss new ways of working, learn from one another, and share stories of success.
Q: How do volunteers help you make a difference?
A: We couldn’t exist without our volunteers and I am so grateful to every one of them. At our peak we have had more than 140 volunteers donating at least an hour a month with us, which is astounding! At the moment we offer between 400-500 hours of free career and mental health support every month to the people who need us.
Q: What would you say to someone considering volunteering with your organisation?
A: Volunteers are the literal lifeblood of our organisation. I recognise that the way we operate is very different to a lot of other volunteer organisations.
Our volunteers really do enjoy the sense of connection with the people we help. The feedback from our clients is amazing.
We have volunteer roles for people with all sorts of different skills and I’d encourage them to consider volunteering with us.
Learn more about Project Placed
Membership
The Centre for Volunteering is proud to support member organisations like Project Placed, who are doing important work in the community.
“Being a member with The Centre is the gold standard in volunteerism and a partnership that we are incredibly proud of.” – Project Placed