Benefits rural, regional and remote communities
Bendigo, 1 August 2016: Rural communities across the country can access another source of funding, following today’s announcement of a new $150,000 grant program – Give for Good.
The program is a partnership between Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (Domino’s) and The Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR). Through Give for Good, grants of up to $5,000 are available to not-for-profit groups in rural, regional and remote communities of up to 15,000 people to support charitable, community-led projects in one of three areas:
- Education & Youth Initiatives (17yrs and over)
- Leadership & entrepreneurship
- Skills, knowledge, and networks needed to prepare and recover from natural disasters
Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij said these three focus areas were chosen because they are so important to building strong and sustainable rural, regional and remote communities.
“While pizza is our passion, we know that rural people are passionate about their communities. To be sustainable, the community need a strong economic base and that depends on well-educated and adapted young people, as well as strong local leadership and a vibrant local economy, hence the focus on entrepreneurship. But none of these things are going to matter if these communities aren’t well prepared in the event of a natural disaster,” Mr Meij explained.
FRRR CEO, Natalie Egleton, said that the program has been designed to be deliberately wide-reaching, recognising that each community faces different issues and has different priorities.
“Domino’s shares our belief that local people are best placed to identify the issues that need addressing, and the best way to go about it, and through these grants, we can help local leaders implement those projects. By harnessing and investing in the economic, community leadership and social strengths, we can help build strong, vibrant, sustainable communities.”
The kinds of projects that could be funded includes (but is not limited to):
- Access to education, particularly adult education, job pathways and job readiness programs
- Supporting at-risk and vulnerable youth through, for example, programs focusing on prevention and early intervention
- Fostering youth leadership, engagement and meaningful participation
- Community-led health and wellness initiatives that directly address an identified local community need
- Fostering and skilling community leaders to create viable, vibrant and adaptive communities through community leadership programs
- Developing social enterprises
- Supporting the short, medium and long term recovery and preparedness of communities impacted by natural disasters. This includes economic recovery, improved social cohesion and connectedness, and the effective management of the social impacts following a natural disaster
Application forms and guidelines are available by visiting frrr.org.au/grants/GiveForGood.
Earlier this year, Dominos worked with FRRR to channel support to the community of Dungog in NSW, which was severely impacted by floods in 2015, and to expand a project that is helping to breakdown stereotypes in south east Queensland.