Archived Grant Opportunity View - GO4685
Building Excellence in Support and Training (BEST)
The Australian Government is inviting applications through a targeted non-competitive process to deliver services under the Building Excellence in Support and Training (BEST) program.
The BEST program links closely to the Advocacy Training and Development Program (ATDP), which provides the essential skills for claims, advocacy and welfare work.
BEST is intended to assist the veteran and defence communities by providing support and resources to ex-service organisation (ESO) practitioners for pensions, advocacy and/or welfare work. It assists ESOs by providing a contribution to the work of these practitioners. It does not fully fund an organisation.
The objectives of the program are to assist ESOs to:
- improve the quality of claims received by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) at the primary determining level
- reduce the rate of appeals to the Veterans’ Review Board (VRB) and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT)
- promote the provision of welfare services to the veteran and defence community.
The intended outcomes of the program are to ensure:
- the veteran and defence communities are able to benefit from having better informed ESO practitioners who can ensure claims lodged with DVA are of a high standard and contain all required information to enable timely and quality decisions
- ESO practitioners will assist in improving claims assessment efficiency
- the veteran and defence communities will have access to appropriate compensation and welfare advocacy services.
To be eligible you must be an ex-service organisation (ESO) and have an eligible entity type as listed below.
Applicant types
ESOs can choose to apply as one of two applicant types:
- An ESO applying in their own right for funding for their own organisation.
- An organisation ESO applying for funding as a sponsoring applicant on behalf of one or more ESOs that may or may not be an eligible entity type.
Applying in your own right
To be eligible to apply in your own right, you must be:
• an ESO and
• one of the following eligible entity types:
- Company
- Cooperative
- Corporate State or Territory Entity
- Incorporated Association
- Indigenous Corporation
- Partnership
- Statutory Entity.
If you are applying as a Trustee on behalf of a Trust, the Trustee must have an eligible entity type as listed above.
Applying as a sponsoring applicant
Whether or not an ESO has an eligible entity type, another eligible ESO may apply as a sponsor on their behalf. Funding is managed by the sponsoring applicant but any recommended grant amount will be assessed on the basis of the sponsored organisation’s activity as provided in the application. A sponsoring applicant may apply on behalf of more than one ESO. The sponsoring applicant must submit a separate grant application for each sponsored organisation.
To be eligible, a sponsoring applicant must be an ESO and one of the following eligible entity types:
• Company
• Cooperative
• Corporate State or Territory Entity
• Incorporated Association
• Indigenous Corporation
• Partnership
• Statutory Entity.
Please refer to section 4.1 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines for further information.
To apply, go to the application form here.