Ungooroo Aboriginal Corporation

It has been a very busy and very successful 2009 for Ungooroo Aboriginal Corporation—and it looks like the coming year is going to be even busier. Ungooroo, located at Singleton in New South Wales, provides essential services to the Aboriginal community in the Upper Hunter Valley region, including resumé help and training workshops for job seekers and computer literacy courses.

Ungooroo received the Hunter Business Enterprise Centre’s award for the Best Indigenous Business for 2009. Nominations for the award came from the Port Stephens, Murrurundi and Newcastle business communities. ‘This award means a tremendous amount to the directors and the Aboriginal community’, Taasha Layer, Ungooroo Aboriginal Corporation Manager, said. ‘And thank you to the directors for their willingness to learn and their community and self-sacrificing spirit. They are a pleasure to work for.’

Ungooroo has also been successful in its tendering for two separate Australian Government Indigenous Employment Program panels: the employment and the economic development and business support panels. The corporation will be asked to quote for providing employment and related services offered by the government. Projects run under the employment panel will focus on preparing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for long-term and sustainable employment and developing employment prospects.

The tender was lodged in partnership with Hopkins Recruitment and Communication Wise. Taasha Layer believes that working together and focusing on the strengths of each business led to their successful bid. ‘Together these organisations bring a diverse and highly specialised range of skills that individually we do not have,’ she said.

The corporation also hires out a training room for workshops, business focus groups, training courses and community consultations, and a doctor from Awabakal Aboriginal Medical Service visits the Singleton office once a fortnight for medical appointments, which are organised through Ungooroo.

Ungooroo will be launching its new-look website in mid January at www.ungooroo.com.au—so check back if you would like to know more about what the corporation has planned in 2010.