Significant funding to rebuild and recover from COVID

The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) has welcomed a significant boost to its flagship Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC) grant program, following an investment of more than $5 million from the Australian Government.

This funding, which will be available over the next two years, recognises the significant and long-lasting impacts of COVID and the localised effort needed to recover and rebuild vibrant remote, rural and regional communities.

From today, community groups and not-for-profit organisations in remote, rural and regional communities can apply for funding to support the recovery process, reduce social isolation, foster stronger, more resilient communities, or sustain these vital local organisations in their work.

The Australian Government’s support means that there will be $800,000 available in this round of SRC grants specifically for COVID-related projects. The COVID stream will have two tiers of funding  – one will offer grants of up to $10,000 to groups working in communities of fewer than 50,000 people, while a second tier will offer grants of up to $50,000 for groups in remote, rural or regional communities (as defined by Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Australian Geography Standards).

Natalie Egleton, CEO of FRRR, said that the Australian Government’s investment is sorely needed and will be greatly appreciated by local organisations that have been struggling with raising funds, and coping with the effects of volunteer fatigue.

“At the end of last year, FRRR commissioned the Heartbeat of Rural Australia study, which confirmed that the pandemic has weakened the ability of community organisations to play their various roles in the community, at a time when, for many, demand for their services has increased.

“Many community groups that took part in the study – especially grassroots organisations with revenue of less than $50,000 – saw significant reductions in income as a result of not being able to run fundraising events and income-generating activities and, in some instances, funders redirecting their support. It’s also impacted the number of people able to volunteer, meaning that those remaining have been called on to do more, for longer. It’s no wonder people are exhausted.

“This program will help to rebuild rural communities by funding projects that respond to the ongoing impacts of COVID and will help communities get back on their feet.

“We’ve deliberately kept the SRC program flexible, as we know needs will be different from place to place, and from group to group. Projects eligible for funding could include supporting, training or attracting volunteers; running events; enhancing community facilities; developing services that assist people experiencing disadvantage; or purchasing equipment or resources that strengthen local organisations. We are very grateful for the Australian Government’s support and the commitment that they are showing to strengthen and rebuild rural communities,” Ms Egleton said.

In addition to the COVID funding stream, the SRC program still has grants available to support communities affected by the 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires. There is $650,000 available this round, through grants of up to $25,000. A third, more general stream of funding offers Small & Vital grants of up to $10,000 for initiatives that strengthen and support communities of 15,000 or fewer in remote, rural or regional areas.

To learn more about the program, and to apply, visit https://frrr.org.au/SRC. Applications close 31 May 2022 at 5pm AEDT.

Acknowledging the Wongutha people

Goldfields Girl is about leadership, confidence and building aspirational behaviours. Much more than a pageant, it’s a program that involves personal development, work readiness and community engagement activities for young Indigenous women between the ages of 16 and 25 from the Goldfields region, in south eastern corner of Western Australia. It’s based on the successful Kimberley Girl program, and has been operating since 2017.

Goolarri Media Enterprises (the operational arm of Broome Aboriginal Media Association Aboriginal Corporation) is behind the program, which is part of the overarching Young Women’s Pathways Program, helping young Indigenous women to realise their self-worth, gain confidence to dream big and to build goal setting behaviours.

In 2020, Goolarri’s aim for the program was to engage and participate up to 10 young women from Leonora in the program and workshops. Goldfields Girl is a contemporary cultural activity, and in the remote town of Leonora, there is nothing else like it for Indigenous women at this age and stage of life. The work readiness training and leadership development it provides can be transformational, providing a pathway for successfully navigating transition from school to employment. A significant 43.7% of the Pathways Program participants from 2004 to 2015 were employed, compared to 29.8% employment rate across Indigenous women in all of Australia, in the same age range (and this number is known to be much lower in remote areas.)

With funding from the Kapikarnpi Community Fund, FRRR supported the inaugural Goldfields Girl program in 2017 with a $5,000 grant to the Tjupan Ngalia Land Council Aboriginal Corporation. For two years, activities were held in Leonora and Kalgoorlie. In 2019, there were fewer Leonora participants, and so they were brought to Kalgoorlie for the workshops with their travel, accommodation and meal costs covered. But Leonora is a priority site for the program, and Goollarri wanted to support young women from the town, so they didn’t feel isolated because they were many kilometers from their home and Country.

Goolarri sought funds from the Strengthening Rural Communities program to run a series of 10 smaller, non-accredited workshops based in Leonora in the two weeks prior to Goldfields Girl 2020, to keep the young women engaged as much as possible. They were successful and started planning.

With the programs initially locked in for March 2020 delivery, everything fell apart when the country went into lockdown. Suddenly the risk of these young women feeling isolated became even greater. But the organisation was committed to finding a way forward. 

Unsure how to proceed and unable to access the Leonora community, Goolarri got the Broome and Kalgoorlie-Leonora teams together on Zoom to determine a way forward.  They agreed to commence the program online by filming fun videos to engage the girls in the accredited training. With a small window in which to keep participants engaged, while not ideal, the plan was better than nothing. So, they developed online modules, videos, adapted content and updated COVID plans as the environment changed.

In the final report, the organisation wrote: “We did everything in our power to ensure this project went ahead, to the point where our organisation invested heavily in developing accredited training materials and training videos for the girls, so they did not think we had just walked away and left them.”  

“None of it was easy but we did it for the young women.”

Past Leonora participants were trained in the delivery and support of the materials and this was a wonderful outcome that has enabled additional skill sharing for other young women in the community.

“We know from their feedback that these young women gained so much out of this and enabling them through trust in on the ground delivery gave them additional ownership for future activities such as this.” 

While they didn’t achieve all the results they had hoped for with this adapted delivery model, they hope that we can make a bigger impact in future years delivering the full program in person.   

“We know we touched the lives of those girls who did participate and hope to keep them engaged for future delivery.” 

The resolution of issues causing frequent flooding of the carpark for the Burrum District Community’s Men’s Shed in Howard, QLD, has enabled more seniors to have safe access to opportunities to learn new skills with like-minded community members.

The carpark was flooding constantly due to weather issues and stormwater runoff, making access to steps and a ramp difficult for senior members, meaning some were not able to visit the shed.

A $2,200 FRRR Strengthening Rural Communities grant funded drainage and an all-weather carpark. Members also contributed by pitching in to clean up weeds – a project that need to be repeated when the project was stalled due to COVID-19 closures of the facility.

Burrum District Community Men’s Shed President Mark Wake said the facility provides a safe, friendly and healing environment with the emphasis on men’s health and encouraging social inclusion. Members can work on meaningful projects at their own pace, in their own time and in the company of others.

“The shed provides a friendly, relaxing environment that encourages men and assists with social isolation. It also provides support in times of bereavement, ill health, redundancy and other life changing events,” he said.

“The success of this project will see our shed becoming a welcoming environment in any weather as a drop-in centre for lonely, isolated men in the community,” Mr Wake said.

Among the improvements are access to the main shed during inclement weather, wheelchair access to the ramp and access to the metal work shed. An additional benefit was an increase in usable off-street parking leading to an increase in membership and community members inquiring about other services such as woodwork lessons.

Just off the South Australian mainland you will find Kangaroo Island (KI). Australia’s third largest Island, KI is known for its stunning nature reserves and wildlife. During the 2019/20 bushfires, the flora and fauna of KI was severely impacted. Around 210,000 ha was burned, which destroyed numerous bushland patches of reserves and private property. The true damage of what this has done to the environment and its habitats is still being determined; it may take years to properly understand the impacts.

With this in mind, all remaining vegetation across KI is now considered to be highly important for conservation. Protecting the wildlife that live within these bushland areas is a high priority to organisations like the Nature Foundation. Their vision is to inspire people to connect with and conserve the natural habitat of South Australia for future generations. The Nature Foundation is involved in a number of projects that educate the broader community, provides scientific research and raises funds and awareness for their conservation work.

One of their more recent and ongoing projects is completely eradicating feral cats from Dudley Peninsula, which is located on the eastern side of the Island. Conservationists report that the feral cats living on KI are preying on small animals and birds that are already under threat from the mass loss to their habitat after the bushfires. They are also known carriers of parasitic diseases (Sarcosporidiosis and Toxoplasmosis), which have caused economic impacts on the island’s primary producers. These diseases are known to affect sheep across the island.

To help reduce the numbers of feral cats, the Nature Foundation received a $25,000 Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC) grant, which was funded by the Fire Fight Australia Fund from donations received during the concert for national bushfire relief in February 2020. The SRC grant was used to purchase and install equipment needed to monitor the cat numbers and their movements around the peninsula. The Nature Foundation has built a cat proof fence that separates the peninsula from the remainder of the Island. They made sure to include gaps in the fence so other wildlife like Kangaroos can get through to the other side. The cameras were installed at the fence breaks to monitor the effect of the fences and to determine the best way to control feral cat numbers.  

Since installing the fence and the cameras, it has been reported that numbers and diversity of species within the enclosed area have almost doubled. As reported by the ABC, the current traps set up along the fence are proving to be extremely successful in reducing the number of feral cats to the area.

Grants of more than $800,000 support bushfire recovery and community resilience

Seventy-nine community-led projects that will boost remote, rural and regional communities across Australia are sharing in $809,234 in funding, thanks to FRRR’s Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC) program.

Funded by generous contributions from a number of donors, the SRC program offers two streams of funding. The Small & Vital Stream offers grants of up to $10,000 for locally-led initiatives that strengthen community resilience and capacity, while the Bushfire Recovery Stream offers grants of up to $25,000 to support recovery from the Black Summer bushfires in 2020/21.

In this round of funding, $446,638 will support 55 Small & Vital projects, while $312,596 will be shared across 22 bushfire recovery initiatives.

Grants awarded range from $1,800 to upgrade the Gujarati Cultural Association of Darwin website, through to $25,000 for Wangaratta Rural City Council, which will be used to purchase and install a generator in their Neighbourhood Safer Place – Bushfire Place of Last Resort.

The funding follows the recent release of FRRR’s Heartbeat of Rural Australia Report, which highlights the challenges that local community groups across the country are facing in funding the vital community-strengthening activities that they undertake.

Natalie Egleton, CEO of FRRR, says that the diversity of projects reflects the critical role that these groups play in the vitality of their communities.

“As we found in our Heartbeat study, rural community groups and NFPs really are the heartbeat of rural communities. However, many community groups have found it tough to access funding, especially over the last two years, so we are delighted to be able to step in and support them to deliver on local priorities.

“We are seeing initiatives address local needs ranging from enhancing organisational capacity, to providing training so that the groups can better support their communities, to upgrades in critical community infrastructure so that people a safe and accessible space where they can meet.

“This diversity of projects confirms that these community organisations are best placed to lead the way when it comes to supporting their communities, facilitating recovery, and building resilience,” Ms Egleton said.

One particularly notable aspect of this round of grants is the total value of the projects being supported in the Small & Vital Stream.

“We often hear from community groups that the funding they receive from FRRR helps them secure the balance of funds for their projects. While we are awarding $446,638 toward Small & Vital projects, the total value of the projects we’re supporting is nearly $3 million. This means that, on average, for every $1 awarded by FRRR there’s another $6.50 going into the community either in cash or in-kind. That’s wonderful to see and we’re delighted to be able to help local organisations make progress toward getting these critical initiatives up and running,” Ms Egleton said.

Some of the 79 projects awarded include:

• The Community Charity Shop Incorporated – Rylstone, NSW – Volunteer Celebration and Expo – $10,000 – Celebrate volunteerism and encourage local involvement through a two-day volunteer expo and celebration of local volunteer groups.
• Gong-Dal Aboriginal Corporation – Gapuwiyak, NT – Miyarrka Homelands Mobile Bush Studio and Pilot Project – $10,000 – Upskill youth in video production skills and build a library of video resources for cultural education as well as the purchase of video equipment to develop On-Country bush video studio.
• Fassifern District Historical Society Incorporated – Boonah, QLD – Ride on Mower – $6,200 – Increase volunteer safety and bushfire preparedness through purchase of a ride on mower.
• Port Neill Progress Association Inc – Port Neill, SA – Health and Connectedness for our Community – $2,860 – Support physical and mental health for residents of Port Neill, through weekly fitness sessions throughout 2022.
• Bruny Island District School Association Incorporated – Alonnah, TAS – Billabong Playground Upgrade – $10,000 – Improve educational, physical and social outcomes, by installing an age-appropriate outdoor play area for preschool children.
• Goulburn Region Pre-School Association Inc – Violet Town, VIC – Violet Town Bush Kinder – $4,264 – Enhance early learning andappreciation of nature through the development of a bush education program for kindergarten children.
• City of Albany – Goode Beach, WA – Albany Community Preparedness and Resilience Project – $8,350 – Building community resilience by supporting community planning and preparation for emergencies or disasters.

A full list of grant recipients is available on FRRR’s website.

The SRC program is collaboratively supported by a number of generous donors, which are listed on FRRR’s website.

The next round of SRC applications is currently being assessed and will be announced March 2022.

More information about the SRC program is available on FRRR’s website.

To support grants like this through FRRR, make a tax-deductible donation at frrr.org.au/giving/.

The small town of Kilkivan in Queensland, 50 km west of Gympie, is served by the hardworking Kilkivan Veteran’s and Community Men’s Shed Association Inc.

Since 2017, the group has been involved in many local projects. They have developed community gardens, managed re-generative tree projects along creek lines (and seen an increase in frog numbers!), and now manage a PA system that is regularly used for community functions, which was funded by an FRRR grant.

Cutting grass, emissions and hassle

The Association, which has seven committee members and 20 volunteer members, also operates the Rural Assist program, the first voluntary support service in the community focused on local seniors. Despite experiencing the effects of drought, the grass still grows and the elderly residents find it difficult to control.

Members are regularly called upon to mow lawns and assist older people with their gardens and, at the time of applying for an FRRR grant, they were set to take on upkeep of the Medical Centre’s grounds. They therefore thought it was about time that they purchased a ride on mower, instead of members using their own equipment!

A recent arrival on the Australian market, the Bushranger E-rider 72V 30″ cut unit was deemed ideal. It is designed for small to medium size areas and can be used by persons with mild disabilities, under supervision.

“This mower would greatly assist us during the summer (wet season) period when the grass grows as you look at it,” wrote Secretary, Treasurer and Founder of the group, David Timperley in the application.

Purchased in April 2020, using a Strengthening Rural Communities grant of $3,699 funded by the Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation, the group has reported the new electric mower is quiet, very easy to operate, and good for safe use around senior residents, who are vulnerable to fumes from petrol driven equipment. They estimate at least 50 seniors will benefit from the purchase.

Meanwhile, progress on the ‘Shed’ continued steadily

The Committee has been diligently working towards having their own Shed for several years. Their vision was that it would provide a space for woodwork, metal work, cooking and other craft activities for both men and women in the area, many of whom feel isolated and impacted by the hardships of continuous drought. 

They planned in detail to ensure that the space was inclusive, accessible and useful. In 2020, a grant of $55,105 through FRRR’s Tackling Tough Times Together program contributed to the fit-out of the facility, especially the welfare area. 

“It is important for the Kilkivan Veteran’s and Community Men’s Shed through its growth to have its own equipment supported by organisations that can help us in our infancy. Although we have been fund raising over the past 3.5 years we have only just been able to have our shed erected. The town has a high level of seniors in our demographic make up. These seniors are very supportive in the work we are doing and the help we provide, however difficult it maybe voluntarily to provide fit and healthy members. This equipment will allow others under supervision and with disabilities to take part in our activities safely. We thank FRRR and The Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation, Equity Trustees for their support.”

David Timperley, Treasurer and Founder

In mid 2021, we caught up with David and Bella Timperley who gave us a tour of the shed and talk about their experience getting grants and achieving their aims as a not-for-profit community organisation in rural Queensland. 

Watch the video below.

 

In Boyup Brook, WA, the Community Resource Centre wanted to encourage older locals to keep fit and healthy. Despite the large numbers in the area (49% of community members are over the age of 50) there was no exercise group locally catering to the older age bracket, who are at risk from a sedentary lifestyle which affects their health and puts subsequent pressure on local health services.

With four staff, 48 members and a committee of eight, the Boyup Brook Community Resource Centre (BBCRC) already plays a big part in the health and wellbeing of the community, hosting a visiting chiropractor, running a community garden, offering cancer support information and various other exercise classes.

The Centre applied to FRRR for funding to run a Seniors Exercise and Activity (SEA) Program. They felt the program would improve the cardio-fitness and mobility of elderly community members and fill an unmet need in the town, capturing “a segment of the population who will benefit from movement and activity but who don’t necessarily want to go to a more strenuous class.”

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In July 2019, with a $4,419 Strengthening Rural Communities grant funded by the John T Reid Charitable Trusts, arrangements were made for the program to start. The Boyup Brook Town Hall was booked to provide a central, accessible and comfortable venue for participants. Equipment was purchased, and the class was advertised in the Boyup Gazette, on noticeboards in the community, the website, social media and also promoted by word of mouth.

Classes ran from August 2019 until June 2020, and were facilitated by CRC Manager Jodi Nield, who holds a Bachelor of Science (Sports Science) and has many years of experience in conducting similar projects. Through her position and involvement in the community, Jodi already had good rapport with local seniors.

Each session was planned to incorporate a variety of group and individual exercises, games and circuit activities that promoted fitness, flexibility, strength and balance. Participants were encouraged to exercise at their own pace with support from the instructor, and encouragement from fellow participants.

Funding also enabled the production of exercise booklets, which were a key component in enabling participants to continue their exercise at home when classes couldn’t be held face to face due to COVID-19 restrictions. Not everyone returned following the break, but the 40 sessions were still able to be conducted during the term of the project, with an average of 12 people attending each session.

“I am most proud of how the program was diverse and inclusive of disability. One participant was a leg amputee, and another an arm amputee. Others had restricted movement in knees, wrists and shoulders. Some had good levels of physical fitness, whereas others had limited fitness, however all were included in the program with alternative activities provided if required.”

Jodi Nield
Manager, Boyup Brook Community Resource Centre

This project not only improved the fitness and quality of life of these residents, but also their social connections and emotional wellbeing. Ms Nield noted that many of the participants were heading out for coffee following the sessions, and the whole community will indirectly benefit from a more connected and engaged senior demographic.

The First Nations’ Pertame language is severely endangered, and at risk of becoming yet another lost language within the next generation. Also known as Southern Arrernte, it is a Central Australian language that belongs to the Country around the Finke and Hugh Rivers, about 100 km south of Alice Springs. Right now, there are fewer than 10 fluent speakers of this language.

The Pertame School is a community-led language program working with Pertame Elders to pass their language and cultural knowledge down to the next generation. They provide a learning platform to grow the next generation of Pertame speakers through the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics (CALL).

In doing so, their objective is to create a thriving, connected Pertame community, with increased mental, spiritual and physical wellbeing through language and cultural renewal. With almost all fluent speakers of Pertame within the grandparent and great-grandparent generation, there was an urgent need to invest heavily in the development of community leaders and the next generation of Pertame language teachers.

Since starting in 2017, the Pertame School has grown to include school holiday programs for children, in-school classes, adults’ evening classes and a master-apprentice program. The Pertame School runs as a project through CALL within the Batchelor Institute’s research division. The Institute manages the project’s finances and provides classrooms, office space and vehicles, and CALL provides support and advice to the Pertame project, but all CALL language projects are required to self-fund through grants and philanthropic donations.

With a grant from the 2020 Larger Leverage round of FRRR’s Strengthening Rural Communities program, funded by The Maple-Brown Family Foundation, the Northern Territory’s Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education has continued to deliver their Master-Apprentice Program (MAP). MAP utilises innovative learning techniques originating from Indigenous communities in southern California that are centred around one-on-one oral immersion sessions with Elders – the Masters – which sees a return to the old ways of learning.

One of the apprentices is Shania Armstrong – a recent grade 12 graduate and young Traditional Owner who is taking part in MAP and teaching what she has learned to the next generation of Pertame speakers on Arrente Country.

Shania is part of her family’s dedicated multi-generational involvement in the program, with her great-grandmother, Nana Christobel Swan, one of the last Pertame speakers and the one of the program’s key ‘Masters’. Going from her great-grandmother’s reality of not being allowed to speak her language at school, to being a steward for the regeneration of Pertame has been a great source of pride for Shania and her community. Knowing that this regeneration has already and will continue to grow not just a strong source of social cohesion but a sense of self and culture, is just one of Shania’s motivations to do all she can to heal Country in this way.

In an interview with the ABC’s Healing Country program presenter Lillie Madden, Shania described her involvement in the program.

“When I got the chance to learn my language I took it. I want to keep doing what I’m doing and teach my language so it never dies. The kids love learning their language. Every time they come to a Pertame class they always have a big smile on their face.”

The FRRR grant was used to pay for qualifications and training for apprentices; language learning resources; a contribution towards transport and food costs; as well as towards apprentice employment payments.

Batchelor Institute’s CALL and the Pertame School is proud of this solutions-focused initiative and its wide-reaching impact on the broader community. Learn more here.

The township of Leonora is located 230 km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and, like many predominantly Indigenous communities, there is an issue with maintaining school attendance in young children. Currently, there is an imbalance in investment in Indigenous Education Support Programs, with the investment in boys outweighing the investment in girls by a significant number. Increasing school attendance is crucial for young Indigenous women to access greater opportunities at school and beyond.

Shooting Stars (SS) is an initiative by Glass Jar Australia and Netball WA that is designed to increase school attendance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls living in WA’s remote towns and communities. Through the SS initiative, activities to encourage exercise, positive health and wellbeing, leadership and cultural connection are nourished.

Using a $10,000 Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC) grant through the Small and Vital stream, two Shooting Stars Cultural Reward Camps were able to be funded. Twenty-five girls aged between 10-16 were invited to participate in two activity-based camps on Kija / Jaru Country. In order to participate the girls were required to demonstrate an 80% or above school attendance rate or show an improvement in attendance by 20% or more from the previous term. These requirements not only increase participation at school but also help the girls to feel they have worked hard for the achievement.

The grant, which was generously funded by the Karpikarnpi Community Fund, allowed camping equipment and food, recording equipment for the yarning circle and the transport of two Shooting Star Program facilitators: the Sparks Coordinator and Pathways Coordinator.

During the two camping days seven activities took place which included traditional jewellery making, damper made three ways, a yarning circle for the girls to discuss successes and challenges over the term, a basket weaving session, an art mural class, a healthy eating and nutrition workshop and a wellbeing session with the Shooting Star Program Facilitators.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, changes were made to the original plan. However, the Shooting Stars initiative was able to adapt to hold an engaging and positive camp for the girls who all responded positively to the camp.

In this quarter’s update for FRRR’s donor partners, read about:

• Heads up on the findings of the Heartbeat of Rural Australia study
• BE INSPIRED: Thallon ‘back from the brink’
• Donor Spotlight: Pinnacle Charitable Foundation
• Insights from the bush
• Our progress, with your support
• Partnering Opportunity – Supporting volunteers through SRC
• Grants in Action: Bermagui’s collective approach to preparedness
• Community Partner Spotlight: Housing Matters Action Group