25th Anniversary: 5 April 2025
This story was submitted as part of FRRR’s 25th birthday celebrations.
“From the first time we contacted FRRR to inquire about a grant, we felt supported by an intelligent, insightful and caring organisation of real people. The website information itself was informative and all-encompassing, but the people who helped us by phone were considerate, encouraging and resourceful. They went out of their way to ensure that applications were submitted correctly and the follow-up reviews were helpful. The human element that we encountered at FRRR was reassuring. We felt understood and ‘on the same wavelength’. Unlike some other funding bodies, our need to re-build our community after the disaster of COVID, by prioritising our need to rebuild social capital was recognised by FRRR. It was clear reading the FRRR community grant guidelines that our project, which relied upon educating and connecting different social groups and cultures to locate vulnerable and isolated people was “in sync” with FRRR values. We felt trusting – and trusted. This inspired our volunteers to work hard to reach high standards. To us, FRRR was far more than a reactive funding source. It was a beacon of “best practice” in all ways needed by remote, rural and regional communities where our needs locally are very different – and sometimes far more urgent – than other places.
Elizabeth Mitchell, Ex-Secretary
FRRR appreciated our need to reach deeply within our grassroots – to get people talking together and sharing ideas – at the very coalface. FRRR addresses regional issues holistically and recognises the importance of our community’s non-profit efforts to assess what we must do to inspire good change at the community level. The empowerment that we have felt has been outstanding, and every person who was involved in our MHFA project who has gone on to carry the FRRR values forward to other community groups has experienced personal growth, while developing new and transferable skills. For us, the FRRR-granted money has been a gift that has gone on giving! Donors to FRRR should be pleased and proud to know that their donations have been well-spent. Congratulations, FRRR, on your 25th anniversary. You will continue to be a blessing to both old and new and evolving communities in a way that is unique and highly respected – and to us, irreplaceable”
“FRRR funding helped us to provide Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training to maximum class sizes of 25 people in each session. We held a two-day training session initially to cover the Core Course in late 2023, followed by two optional one-day sessions to cover Gambling and Suicide in early 2024. All classes were fully booked. We had very high levels of interest from health service workers, especially multicultural health workers and also interested community members, which created a wide range of insights and discussion.
Our classes included people from India, Pakistan, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Poland and the Philippines. We were able to share stories from our different cultural communities and hear entirely new perspectives, especially when discussing stigma-related issues like Gambling and Domestic Violence. Feedback received after the training ended was very positive. People reported increased confidence and empowerment in holding difficult social conversations that they had avoided previously. Many were grateful to meet new friends with whom they have since engaged socially.
We offered free lunches and morning tea to all participants, for all training sessions. Special dietary requirements like Halal, vegetarian, gluten and dairy-free were all catered for, so everyone felt equally respected and included. Eating together created welcoming, inclusive breaks and people who would likely not have met otherwise all relaxed and got to know each other.
From those first two days, many firm, ongoing friendships evolved. Two social / learning activities were held later in 2024 to attract more community members and provide more opportunities for course participants to meet and engage over Morning Tea, while listening to “special interest” experts. One activity covered “Making Latrobe Valley Bee-Friendly” and the other included a presentation on “Turning Upcycled Clothing into Funky Wearable Art”.
In 2025, these same topics were incorporated into another community project because they were popular and had attracted so much interest in the 2023/2024 MHFA project. MHFA course participants cooked and served multicultural foods for these events, and new networks were formed that are still expanding.
As a non-profit community association, Living Well Yallourn North Inc could never have afforded to fund the Mental Health First Aid Australia courses that have since impacted so many local people. The prime MHFA project goals were to inform, raise awareness, and connect potentially vulnerable and isolated people from diverse groups in Latrobe Valley. Since the training, several people have joined and connected with three important multicultural community groups: International Women’s Group, Filipino Seniors Carers Support Group of Gippsland, and United Muslim Sisters of Latrobe Valley.
MHFA participants have joined a social networking group, Latrobe Women Creating Conversations and our local food security action group, Food For All Latrobe Valley, to become active committee and general members. Two other Latrobe Valley sustainability and art projects, Celebrating Permaculture and Conference of the Birds, have been supported by a new band of multicultural MHFA volunteers.
Of the original 25 people who participated in the MHFA training, we know of 17 who have since engaged with and assisted other community organisations. At least 400 meaningful opportunities for networking and overcoming social barriers have been achieved in Latrobe Valley by that group of 17 people alone.
Because we wanted to attract and engage with isolated, vulnerable people in Latrobe Valley in a socially welcoming but educational environment, our need to provide food for both morning teas and lunches for guests at our social / learning events was significant. Unlike some other Latrobe City funders, FRRR provided funds for catering that made such events possible. It is factual that none of that information-sharing, networking, and connection would have been possible without the caring, supportive and generous help of FRRR.”
Living Well Yallourn North’s vision for the future
“By 2050, we envision WRNA as a nationally recognised organisation that continues to foster inclusivity, support and connection within communities. We hope to continue to make more co-designed events for young people, by young people. Our goal is to build a network of strong partnerships, ensuring that everyone – regardless of background or circumstances – feels heard, valued and supported. These are the small stepping stones we wish to achieve to ultimately create a long-lasting movement for disability justice in regional Australia.
Latrobe Valley is going through a very rough transition in 2025. It is negatively impacting our levels of mental and physical health and wellbeing. The need for change has caused high levels of anxiety, tension, disagreement and division in our already disadvantaged community. Existing industries are closing; made worse by the closure of local retail businesses. Both economic and social deficits have become more acute because of the cost-of-living crisis and global uncertainty. There is a heightened demand for increased education about the crises that too often confront people, and we must learn to face and deal with them proactively.
Mental Health First Aid training helps our community members to seek out and connect more meaningfully, to avoid needless social upheaval and tragedy. By 2050, we hope that MHFA training will no longer be needed. Our region will no longer be going through this unsettling transition. New industries will provide longer-term career satisfaction and job security for our residents, particularly our youth and young families. Our levels of health and wellbeing will be long-lifted. There will be a new sense of pride within Latrobe Valley, with people feeling less isolated, less lonely but happier and more connected. Wind turbines and solar panels will provide energy and “nuclear” debates will be long forgotten. Latrobe City will be clean, green and sought after as a destination to live in, work in and visit. Harmony will reign, and hopefully, we will travel to Melbourne by ‘fast train’.”
