About SIDS and Kids Victoria
SIDS and Kids Victoria is a member organisation of The National SIDS Council of Australia
Sudden Infant Death Research Foundation Inc., trading as SIDS and Kids Victoria; is a high-profile and well respected nonprofit organisation that boasts an enviable history of success.
We offer services to approximately 400 Victorian families each year whose child has died suddenly and unexpectedly. We contact families as soon as we are notified; referrals to our organisation can come from midwives, emergency responders, emergency department staff, through family or self referral. We have a 24 hour help line staffed by grief counsellors and trained parent supporters. Our support is ongoing - for as long as needed.
In addition, we support parents of approximately 65,000 new babies born each year in Victoria, through the promotion of Safe Sleeping practises and the delivery of education programs designed to reduce the incidence of child mortality.
All services and resources are provided free of charge.
We are funded through the generosity of the Victorian public. Our three main sources of income are Red Nose Day product sales, raffle ticket sales and tax-deductable donations. The organisation receives no government funding apart from a small annual grant that provides less than 1% of our operating costs. Our organisation also relies on a number of volunteers, many of whom are bereaved parents, families and friends. Our volunteers carry out a variety of essential duties including Red Nose Day activities, family support and preparing knitted baby garments for our Treasured Babies Program.
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Mission Statement To save babies' lives through research and health promotion and to support families and community members affected by SIDS or the sudden and unexpected death of a child. |
History of SIDS and Kids Victoria
Kaarene Noelle Fitzgerald founded the Sudden Infant Death Research Foundation Inc in 1977, the day after her son, Glenn, died. This then cascaded on to her co-founding the National SIDS Council of Australia, SIDS International and then the Global Strategy Task Force on SIDS. In 1988 Australia’s first ever signature day, Red Nose Day, was conceived and has grown to become one of Australia’s highest profile fund raising days with a 97% prompted recognition rate. Over the past 30 years, through the Safe Sleeping program, SIDS and Kids have reduced the infant mortality rate in Australia by around 84%, an outstanding achievement.
In 1999, based on our success in reducing SIDS and in response to community demand, we broadened our bereavement services to support anyone affected by the death of a child that died suddenly and unexpectedly, from 20 weeks gestation to 6 years of age (18 in regional Victoria), regardless of the cause. The children may have died from SIDS, stillbirth, drowning, motor vehicle accident, fire, sudden onset illness, homicide or in some other way. In 2002 a new name, SIDS and Kids, was adopted to reflect our expanded charter.
SIDS and Kids Victoria Board
Our Board of Directors are volunteers and give freely of their time to assist the work of the organisation and to provide governance and fiscal accountability to the community in which we provide our wide range of bereavement support and education services.
Annual Report
Annual Report Year Ending March 2011
The Cost of Running Our Services
Many Trusts and Foundations assist us to maintain our services. This section provides a breakdown of the requirements of our organisation and our financial circumstance. Many people do not know that we receive less than 1% of government funding. We rely heavily on the generous support of the Victorian community. We have some high cost fund raising programs such as our raffle (cost of prizes - no unfortunately they are not donated and telemarketing sales) and some lower cost programs such as our donor mail support program to existing supporters and our general donations. Red Nose Day is a moderate cost program (mainly cost of product and postage costs) that is supported by a range of retail partners and people in the community selling to family, friends and work colleagues. Overall our general administration costs to run all the fund raising programs and our administration (reception, office, administration, finance) costs are about 44 cents in every dollar raised.
We Can't Do Without These People
Our Board of Directors is a volunteer board and commits to the overall governance and financial accountability of the organisation. We have close to 90 parent supporters (these are families that have been affected by the death of a child and have subsequently completed our Peer Parent Supporter Training Program and support other newly bereaved parents) together with over 350 volunteers who knit and sew for our Treasured Babies Program.
