In partnership with The Yulgilbar Foundation, FRRR has awarded $785,794 in grants to 23 local groups for community projects designed to strengthen community capacity and resilience in the Clarence Valley and surrounding region.

These grants, which are funded through The Yulgilbar Foundation Fund program, are the final tranche of a $2 million commitment awarded over the last three years.

In the wake of the 2019/20 bushfires and subsequent disasters including floods and COVID, these grants will support local groups to foster community connection, education and wellbeing across the region.

Ten of the 23 grants will support local events and festivals. This includes the Grafton Jacaranda Festival for a concert for 5,000 people Featuring Troy Cassar-Daley and Don Walker.

Also set to perform on stage at the Grafton Jacaranda Festival is the Big Scrub Orchestra, which has also been awarded funds. The Orchestra’s grant will support music workshops to boost resilience, health and wellbeing of local children in five small rural public schools and support their performance in the Jacaranda Festival.

Sarah Matthee, FRRR’s General Manager of Partnerships and Services, said that the projects funded demonstrate the important role that social connectedness plays in disaster recovery.

“While each place has its own unique set of recovery needs, in this round of grants we saw many community groups seeking funding for projects designed to bring people together to strengthen social connections, which is such an important part of the recovery process. This also gives us valuable insight into where communities are in their recovery journey.”

Madeleine Noble, Executive Officer of The Yulgilbar Foundation said the Foundation is proud to support a variety of projects across the region, many of which will boost the capacity of local groups to contribute to recovery activities.

“For example, funding for Container of Dreams based near Tabulam will help women develop micro-enterprise skills, Woombah Residents Association will expand activities at the community garden focusing on disaster preparedness, and Lawrence Community Fundraising will run a series of creative workshops and events celebrating local residents and their skills”.

More information is available on FRRR’s website – https://frrr.org.au/funding/the-yulgilbar-foundation-fund/.

The full list of grant recipients and their projects are below.

Woombah is located in the Clarence Valley, on Yaegl Country, and has a growing population including long-time residents, older residents and young families. Without a community hall or cafe, the community has long needed a place to gather, connect, share ideas and resources.

The Woombah Residents Association (WRA) created the Woombah Wellness Community Garden to provide a sustainable gathering space for locals to come together and share gardening tips, knowledge, stories and create community connections.

They received a grant last year from The Yulgilbar Foundation Fund grants program, which FRRR manages. It supports communities in the Clarence Valley and surrounding regions who have a desire and need to strengthen their capacity and resilience in response to the 2019/20 bushfires, flooding and continued challenges across the region.

WRA used the $12,100 grant to create a series of promotional and educational videos to celebrate the recently established community garden and share the 2021 program of workshops and events with members, residents, community groups and wider social networks.

Six videos were developed to create a stronger online presence, encourage greater onsite participation, educate residents about the benefits of gardening, and engage their volunteers and members:

• Native Bee Hotel Workshop Promo
• How to Make a Native Bee Hotel
• Saturday, It’s Garden Day Promo
• Tunes in the Trees Highlights
• Gardener Profile Vicki
• Gardener Profile Cara
• Vicki’s Garden Map Promo

From developing creative video content with different members and groups in the community, to screenings virtually and at Woombah Residents’ Association meetings, the production of these resources helped deepen WRA’s engagement with the wider community. It also provided opportunities to build stronger relationships within the community garden team, by working together on this series of creative video projects.

“We are grateful for the support from FRRR and The Yulgilbar Foundation, and proud of the workshop activities and virtual resources that have built organisational capacity in the WRA’s Wellness Community Garden and increased awareness and engagement in environmental sustainability initiatives in our community.”

Berri Brown, President

Grants part of $2M funding commitment for region

Thanks to a new partnership between the FRRR and The Yulgilbar Foundation, 22 projects in the Clarence Valley and surrounding region have received a much-needed boost this year, with community groups sharing in $1,214,206 in grants.

Funded through The Yulgilbar Foundation Fund program, these grants are part of $2 million investment across the region over a three-year period. Funded initiatives include 19 one-off grants and two multi-year grants that will strengthen community capacity and resilience in the wake of the 2019/20 bushfires, drought and continued challenges across the region.

A broad cross section of groups has received support for a wide range of initiatives, with grants ranging from $1,600 for a creative writing workshop to $571,000, distributed over three years, for the Changing Lanes Community Youth Garage program run by The New School of Arts. Mudyala Aboriginal Corporation has also been awarded multi-year funding, totaling $148,413, for a project focused on resilience and wellbeing of Indigenous boys and men from Clarence Valley and surrounds.

Natalie Egleton, FRRR’s CEO, said that the breadth of the projects funded reflects the diverse needs of communities in the Clarence Valley and surrounding areas.

“Great ideas and initiatives to create strong, vibrant communities are prevalent across the Clarence Valley and neighbouring regions. However, the last 12 to 18 months have made it pretty challenging to find the funding and resources to bring them to fruition.

“These grants, which are generously funded by The Yulgilbar Foundation, mean that these 22 ideas will become reality and have a positive impact on the capacity and resilience of their communities. It is fantastic to have dedicated funding available to support this region,” Ms Egleton said.

The projects supported range from creative arts, heritage and culture projects, events and festivals, gardening, street-scaping, creating employment-pathways, IT equipment and business, leadership and mental health workshops.

Further opportunities for grants will be available through The Yulgilbar Foundation Fund in the coming year. More information is available here.

The full list of grant recipients and their projects are listed below by LGA:

Greening Australia (Tas) is a leading environmental restoration organisation, restoring and conserving natural landscapes, producing clear, practical plans that allow people and wildlife to coexist. Their aim is to optimise greater understanding and involvement of Tasmania’s biodiversity hot spot through the running of conservation and artistic workshops for the community.

They received a $4,000 grant from the Small Grants for Rural Communities program, funded by the Yulgilbar Foundation for their ‘Hot Spot Snapshot’ program, which saw Greening Australia (Tas) run two activity field days at Cressy and Campbell Town, south of Launceston in Tasmania.

University researchers, restoration ecologists, artists and the school community came together to share their skills and knowledge with students from Oatlands and Campbell Town. More than 200 people participated in the Biodiversity Day at Oatlands; 70 people attended the Big Biodiversity Night Out at Merton Vale in Campbell Town, and this was followed by a BIG Day Out on 8 September at Ross with 30 Campbell Town Students working with 70 Architecture and Design Students from the University of Tasmania to build ‘Species hotels’, sculptural works to highlight the planted habitats for the threatened species in the Midlands Biodiversity Hot Spot. These will be established as a sculpture trail at Ross. Campbell Town students also planted 200 trees on a site next to the proposed Sculpture Park.

The grant was used to fund the purchase of wildlife cameras, video production, workshop materials, and travel for students as part of this collaborative community project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMPfMrd2RV8

Despite the recent rain along much of the Eastern Seaboard, just a couple of hours inland our farmers and regional communities are still in the midst of a crippling drought. FRRR’s Tackling Tough Times Together (TTTT) program was launched last year to help communities across most of Queensland and the New South Wales Northern Tablelands to access the resources they need to support community based activities that both help to relieve current stressors and symptoms, but most importantly, build capacity and resilience for the future.

Festival demonstrates community resilience

The Wallangra Recreation Reserve Trust secured a $50,000 TTTT grant funded by the Yulgilbar Foundation to run the ‘Not Quite Baroque (Broke!) festival in Wallangra, 650 km north of Sydney in northern New South Wales. The two-day event celebrated the resilience of several small bush communities, involving a series of creative art and music workshops for local school children, workshops for adults and a music concert for the whole community.

The Inverell Times reported that the money was used to transform the Wallangra Hall into a fresh performance venue, triggering a series of art and music workshops, host a TED talk series and put on a concert of immense local talent.

A positive outlook for the future

The festival has now been declared inaugural, with all organisers and participants firmly committed to making this happen next year.

Event co-founder Helen McCosker felt the community had been energised and encouraged pursuit of events to re-invigorate people. 

“They just need to come together and really work out a real plan, and real way of pushing their community to a point that there needs to be changed, and it needs to happen,” she said.

“And it can be done; it’s all possible. And we did it. It’s amazing. And we’ll keep doing it.”