Funding to meet the local needs and connect communities

One hundred and twenty-nine community groups across remote, rural and regional Australia are sharing nearly $1.4 million in grants through FRRR’s flagship Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC) program.

Awarded via three streams of funding, SRC grants support small and vital projects, like upgrades to the community pool in Cummins, SA; COVID recovery projects, such as creating an arts and cultural precinct in the remote community of Tully, QLD; and disaster preparedness or recovery initiatives, like providing culturally informed, trauma-responsive community healing days for the flood-affected community of Lismore, NSW.

FRRR received a record 450 applications for this round of SRC funding, requesting more than $4.5 million in grants for projects valued at more than $19 million. The team has worked hard to shorten the time between applying and awarding SRC grants, with these grants being awarded just nine weeks after the round closed.

Jill Karena, FRRR’s Place Portfolio Lead, says that there is an increasing need for FRRR to fill gaps in areas that may have previously relied on funding from government incentives or programs or support from local businesses.

“The SRC program is flexible and open year-round, meaning it can lean in when Government and other agencies lean out. This access to continued funding opportunities is especially vital in communities that are moving beyond the immediate threats and response to natural disasters and other shocks.

“This round, we have seen increased applications from the organisers of community events, such as local agricultural shows, as some local governments are reducing their annual funding support. We also saw increased funding requests from smaller more remote communities that are a seeking to boost the local economy by developing activities and events to encourage overnight stays from visitors who would otherwise pass through. We also noticed an increase in applications from fringe metro areas and inner rural communities, which seems to indicate that they too are facing diminishing funding opportunities,” she said.

Unmet need continues in small communities

In addition to the 129 initiatives awarded grants, there were a further 85 funding-ready projects, requesting more than $900,000, that FRRR did not have the funds to support. This highlights the importance of small grants to remote, rural and regional community groups and is why FRRR is seeking new partners so that the Foundation can fund more projects in the future.

“Given the uncertainty of the current financial landscape, groups have told us that they value having access to timely secured funding to support medium to long term goals, as well as initiatives that respond to present needs and priorities.

“These are the projects that create a sense of place and identity, and the people and organisations that make these inspiring projects happen need our support. SRC grants provide leverage as they demonstrate to other funders that the projects have value and are supported. But to be able to fund more of them, we need to bring in additional collaborative funders. So we invite all those who want to see a thriving remote, rural and regional Australia to join us to support local initiatives. They really do make a difference,” Ms Karena said.

The SRC program is collaboratively supported by donors, ranging from private individuals to larger foundations, who are acknowledged on the SRC program page.

FRRR always accepts applications to this program, which awards funds around four times a year. Local not-for-profit organisations and community groups are encouraged to review the program guidelines and apply. More information about the SRC program is available at www.frrr.org.au/src.

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

In an effort to empower local youth and provide employment skills, Karoonda District Council successfully secured a $10,000 FRRR ABC Heywire Youth Innovation Grant under the 2022 idea, ‘Discover Your Future’, with a project that is now brewing success for local youth.

The project, spearheaded by the council’s Youth Action Committee (YAC), aimed to provide professional training and entrepreneurial opportunities for young individuals in the small regional area, located 150 km east of Adelaide. With just 17 council staff and a population of 1,090 spread over 4,415 km², the council recognised the need for initiatives that would not only develop skills for local youth, but also nurture future leaders and provide a funding source for future youth projects.

The YAC is a group of young people aged between 12-25 designed to develop the leadership and life skills of its members. The group discusses youth issues and helps to organise youth and community events. The YAC members identified barista training as a versatile skill set crucial for enhancing employment prospects in Karoonda. With just two cafés in town, local youth faced challenges in gaining this skill set, compared to their metropolitan counterparts.

Unable to secure a trainer on site in Karoonda, the  fifteen young people aged between 13 and 20, attended training at the HG Coffee School in Adelaide. While this made for a long day, the change of site had a hidden benefit – the travel together on the bus provided valuable binding time for the young people and council staff.

The training covered theoretical and practical aspects, ranging from coffee styles to customer service and machine hygiene. From there, participants received their internationally-recognised Level 1 barista certification. From this training, two young individuals secured part-time employment locally, while three others found opportunities in Adelaide, underscoring the effectiveness of the barista training in enhancing employability.

However, the project didn’t conclude with training alone. With the acquisition of a coffee machine and equipment, the YAC established a mobile coffee business strategically located at the Karoonda Institute, a community building owned by the council and a hub for civic and community events. The youth were involved in planning and discussing different business models and the best way to run a mobile coffee setup for their community. This mini social enterprise not only provides a local platform for youth to hone their skills, but also generates ongoing revenue to support future activities and ideas by the Youth Action Committee, ensuring their sustainability and lasting impact.

Farm businesses are inherently stressful workplaces. Managing the vagaries of climate change, working with family members, and doing so in an isolated farm environment, can be hard.

Often in farming, family and business are intertwined. The Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) was hearing from local farmers about the consequences poor communication can have on the farm business, the bottom line, safety and mental health.

Feedback from young farmers had identified poor communication as a key source of stress, anxiety and isolation, which subsequently has negative effects on their mental health.

BCG secured an In a Good Place grant to hold a one-day Tomorrow Farmer event, to discuss the skills that all members of the farming operation require to have the crucial conversations about farm business prosperity, without compromising the social fabric of a family. The event focussed on how to manage and maintain positive mental health during these conversations. Improving their ability to communicate and have the ‘difficult conversations’, often across generations, was the aim of this project.

After rescheduling three times due to lock downs, the training, which was led by Tom Bell from Tomorrow Man, was held on 16 March 2022. And it wasn’t just for men – it was open to everyone interested and there was a broad cross-section of ages that attended.

Approximately 40 farmers, advisers and industry representatives attended the event with a further 20 people registered but unable to attend due to needing to isolate as per COVID guidelines.

While the numbers were less than anticipated, this allowed the group to participate in interactive sessions without the need for a panel session. Tom created a safe and intimate environment for people to feel comfortable asking questions and sharing experiences throughout the sessions.

The sessions covered active listening, asking the right questions, storytelling for connection, being authentic, and knowing when to call in extra support to make important decisions.

The engaging and participatory event provided a framework for ongoing, open and honest communication – a tool as useful as any other in a farmer’s toolbox.

When surveyed about the benefits gained from the event and what tools they planned to implement as a result of attending, the resounding answer was to ‘listen more!’.

“It was one of the best events to meet people in the BCG in my experience and I found it to be a very energising day. Thank you!”

Morawa, a small town in Western Australia’s wheatbelt, lacks recreational and social opportunities for families with young children. With no cafes, the Morawa Playgroup, run for the last 40+ years, by mums (and the odd dad) serves as the primary gathering space for parents and caregivers seeking connection and support. However, Morawa Playgroup’s outdoor area was uninspiring, with a dying lawn and hard claypan soil.

Recognising the need for a vibrant outdoor space, the mums of Morawa Playgroup embarked on a project to transform their drab outdoor area into a nature playground. Collaborating with a local landscape designer, they developed a comprehensive plan to:

• Remove the old, inefficient irrigation system and replace it with a waterwise garden;
• Create a nature play space featuring sensory boxes, timber bridges, and a creek bed;
• Install shade sails to provide relief from the scorching sun and enhance the usability of the outdoor area;
• Establish seating areas for parents to connect and support each other while their children play.

The project unfolded over three years and received a boost from an FRRR grant of $9737, funded by Raine & Horne Foundation.

The completion of the project in September 2023 marked a significant milestone for Morawa Playgroup and the broader community. It’s now the only nature play space in the Shire, which spans 190km2, offering children and parents a welcoming and engaging environment. The shaded, waterwise garden has transformed the outdoor area, allowing children to play outdoors year-round and fostering a sense of connection among families.

Beyond the immediate benefits to the playgroup, the project’s impact extended to Morawa District High School, where reduced water bills freed up funds for educational resources. The positive effects of green spaces on mental wellbeing were evident at the opening of the new play space, signalling a brighter future for the community.

Despite the challenges of being a small, low socio-economic town, the project demonstrates the power of grassroots initiatives to improve quality of life. Morawa Playgroup’s success serves as a testament to the community’s resilience and determination to create a better future for its children and families.

Youngman Creek rehabilitation volunteer wellbeing program

The Namabunda property, situated in what was once the Big-Scrub subtropical rainforest covering over 75,000 Ha of the Northern Rivers, has degraded over the past 30 years – since its days as a lychee farm due to a lack of maintenance.

Bundjalung Tribal Society (BTS) is primarily a housing organisation providing social housing for the Aboriginal community in and around Lismore in northern NSW. They inherited the property and have spent many years, with volunteer support, trying to rehabilitate it to use for cultural activities and ecological preservation, planting bush tucker and medicines, running training and capacity building programs. Despite their efforts, setbacks like bushfires and the COVID pandemic have hindered progress. Community engagement, vital for sustaining the project, has waned due to volunteer fatigue and lockdown restrictions. BTS see the degradation of the Youngman Creek on the property as symbolic of the broader environmental and social challenges facing the community.

The group sought funding to help mobilise the community and resource them with support and infrastructure, expert training and capacity building to rehabilitate the Creek.

“By rehabilitating the creek, we rehabilitate ourselves and our community.”

With a grant of $9,997, supported by GlobalGiving, the group hosted a series of events at Namabunda which attracted significant community participation, including:

1. Build community cohesion through shared activities and cultural workshops.
2. Provide training in bush regeneration and ecosystem management for volunteers, especially in photographic monitoring of weed removal and tree planting;
3. Offer wellbeing support and workshops led by qualified counselors to address the emotional toll of recent challenges.
4. Deliver Bundjalung cultural and ecological knowledge workshops, installing didactic signs about the work to increase awareness and use of Bundjalung ecological knowledge and language, and explaining and demonstrating the value of a healthy waterway ecosystem to neighbouring landowners.

These events will integrate practical activities, such as weeding and planting, with educational sessions on assisted native regeneration techniques. A focus on the Youngman Creek watershed aligns with the project’s theme of “renewal” and underscores the interconnectedness of environmental and community resilience.

Moving forward, Namabunda serves as a model for holistic, community-driven land management that nurtures both people and the environment.

“The thing we are most proud of is the sense of belonging and identity that we have generated through this project in response to the fires, pandemic and then the floods. The thing that was most successful is the deeper engagement between Bundjalung people and non-Indigenous people. The connections that we have built up over the last 18 months is really beautiful to see”.

FRRR was proud once again to join Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, Community Foundations Australia and Australian Communities Foundation in sponsoring the Community Philanthropy Award at the recent Australian Philanthropy Awards.

This year, the selection criteria was updated to shift the emphasis away from community as solely place-based, instead seeing community as being based around culture, shared experience or issues. There was a desire to place greater emphasis on community involvement and participation in its own development –this was reflected in the selection criteria around ‘people-led development’ and ‘power sharing’. With these changes, it was hoped to recognise any forms of philanthropy that centre people and communities as decision-makers and investors in their own development.

The evaluation panel included FRRR’s Program Manager for the Investing in Rural Community Futures (IRCF) program in Leeton, Junee and the Nambucca Valley, Nancy Sposato, and Community Engagement Producer at our partners at the ABC, Kirra Hampson.

Nancy said that all the applications were fantastic. “I felt very privileged to be able to learn about them all and was very inspired. It would be wonderful to profile them all as a wonderful resource for others working in the community philanthropy space to explore, learn from and connect to. I really valued reading all the applications and the diverse ways people are tackling fundraising and equally wonderful to see the value placed in raising knowledge and social capital in communities,” she said.

“I really enjoyed the robust conversations between the panel around the purpose of the award and which entries were aware of and implementing people-led design and power sharing in their approaches.

“I was also fascinated by the issues that applicants were attending to – youth initiatives, early childhood learning, mental health, health research and awareness, disaster response and preparedness, homelessness, domestic violence and support for the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Kirra said that she is relatively new to the world of philanthropy. “I really learnt a lot about what philanthropy is and specifically what community philanthropy means. There were a few applications that definitely hit home for me and my lived experience. As a proud Woi Wurrung and woman who identifies as Queer, applications specifically seeking to improve the lives of First Nations people and the LGBTQIA+ community were ones I was very happy to see.”

The winner of the Community Philanthropy Award was the Ampilfy Pride Fund, which was established in 2022 by Aurora Group and GiveOUT, two LGBTIQ+ led community funders, to help to tackle the challenges and barriers still facing vulnerable members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Australia – poorer mental health, isolation, homelessness, and social and economic marginalisation.

It was also wonderful to see Terry Snow AM and Ginette Snow, partners in FRRR’s IRCF program, receive the Leadership Award and to see The Bibbulmun Fund (a sub-fund of the Fremantle Foundation), recognised for their work in supporting First Nations communities.

Thanks too to Philanthropy Australia for convening these awards which recognise and celebrate the impact of philanthropy.

New partners join FRRR’s In a Good Place program

More funding is now on offer to support mental health projects in remote, rural and regional communities, thanks to new supporters of FRRR’s In a Good Place grants program, with grants of up to $20,000 are now available.

First established in 2018 with the support of CCI Giving, the program’s focus has been on supporting community-driven initiatives that reduce social isolation, increase social participation and connectedness, and increase help-seeking for people within rural, regional and remote communities who are at risk of, or are experiencing, mental health issues.

Now the IAGP program is expanding, adding a stream focussed on farmers and farming communities, following the recent National Farmer Wellbeing Report, which was presented at a recent mental health and wellbeing forum, hosted by National Farmers Federation (NFF).

The Report revealed that in recent years, 45% of Australian farmers have felt depressed, with 64% experiencing anxiety. The causes of this are many-fold, but top among them were weather or natural disasters (47%), financial stress (36%) and inflation and cost pressures (35%). Add to this that 76% of Australian farmers believe that the role they play is undervalued by the Australian public and it’s not hard to understand why farmers and farming communities are experiencing declining mental health.

The Report called for additional funding and support, which prompted six new partners to join FRRR’s IAGP program, alongside CCI Giving – Macdoch Foundation, Jibb Foundation, Morris Family Foundation, Norman Family Foundation and Rebecca Gorman & John Sevior.

These funders have committed to the program for three years, ensuring dedicated funding for farmers and farming communities from 2024-2026. In total, $1,063,000 has been committed over the next three years.

FRRR’s CEO, Natalie Egleton, said that the insights shared by farmers and farmer advocates, reaffirm the relevance of the In a Good Place program, and the role it can play in supporting the wellbeing of farming communities.

“These firsthand experiences and insights, highlight the need for investment in projects that promote preventative and responsive mental health approaches in farming and agriculture-dependent communities.

“Critically, the additional funding will help to address gaps in services by upskilling people locally and bringing in experts, so that locals in farming communities can better support one another.

“Thanks to the generous support of our new partners and CCI Giving, we can build on from the valuable impact that the IAGP program has had on rural Australia over the last six years, by ensuring farming communities can access more funding to develop the community-led, place-based solutions that make sense, locally,” Ms Egleton said.

Jeremy Yipp, Chair of CCI Giving, is also pleased to see the expansion of the program.

“The events of recent years have added complexity to the challenges that remote, rural and regional communities face. But we’ve seen first-hand that by supporting projects that remove barriers to people getting appropriate support, we can make a lasting difference. So it’s wonderful to have more organisations coming on board, enabling FRRR to support even more non-clinical approaches that are community-based and accessible at a grassroots level. It will mean that even more communities can access support,” Mr Yipp said.

Michelle Gortan, CEO of Macdoch Foundation, one of the new partners, said that due to increasingly variable weather conditions, financial and market pressures, and the need to navigate industry and land use transitions, there is a need to ensure farming communities are feeling well-supported.

“Maintaining good mental health and community wellbeing is multi-faceted and a lifelong process that requires a range of different approaches. We recognise that local communities know what will work in their particular context, and as a collective of funders, we are delighted to be partnering with FRRR so that that agricultural communities can design and implement community-led solutions that are fit for purpose.

“FRRR’s special tax status means that as partners, we can respond practically to the issues raised in the National Farmer Wellbeing Report and ensure funding reaches grassroots communities to support improved community wellbeing and mental health, which ultimately helps to create a stronger Australia,” Ms Gortan said.

The expanded program supports a range of approaches that are preventative or responsive in nature, reduce social isolation by increasing social participation and connectedness, and reduce stigma surrounding mental health by encouraging open discussion and supporting self-help-seeking. Communities of less 10,000 will receive priority.

Grants of up to $20,000 are available from a funding pool of at least $290,000. Grants are available via two streams:

1. Community wellbeing – focussing on mental health and wellbeing within remote, rural and regional communities;
2. Farmers and farming communities – supporting mental health and wellbeing of farmers and the communities they live in.

Applications are via an expression of interest process, with EOIs due 30 April, with final applications for those shortlisted due 15 May. Learn more at: https://frrr.org.au/funding/place/in-a-good-place/.

FRRR would also welcome more partners for this program. Potential supporters should contact partnerships@frrr.org.au or call 03 5430 2399.

Thanks to a $8,904 SRC grant supported by the Sidney Myer Fund, Telethon Speech & Hearing Inc was able purchase cutting edge screening technology to streamline its early detection and surveillance of hearing loss at early childhood centres and primary schools across the Pilbara, Kimberley and Wheatbelt regions of WA. Many children in these regions are at risk of developing chronic ear health conditions, which impact all facets of their life including social, behavioural and academic performance, if not addressed early.

The HearX apps and four digital devices have enabled screening and clinical hearing tests to be undertaken in a faster, more reliable way. The software supersedes traditional devices, so that ear screenings can be conducted with a tablet. This was particularly important for Telethon when its regular ear health clinics had to be cancelled due to COVID and a major flood in Onslow. Fortunately, Telethon’s locally based team was able to upskill early years educators, teachers and nurses to undertake the screenings and Telethon’s audiologists could then analyse data and generate reports remotely.

“We have since integrated a tele-health component into our audiology service offerings, allowing our locally based teams to screen children and liaise with our Perth audiology team in real time. This has allowed us to diversify our service delivery modalities, ensuring more frequent hearing supports than would otherwise be on offer pre-COVID.”

Beyond the Bell Great Southern Coast applied to the In a Good Place program, on behalf of the Southern Grampians Live4Life Partnership Group, for funds to support the implementation of the Live4Life model in the Southern Grampians Shire.

Live4Life is a community-grown, evidence-based, rural youth mental health model designed to prevent youth suicide. The Live4Life model aims to ensure that young people, teachers, parents and the wider community are better informed about mental ill health so they can be proactive in identifying the signs and symptoms of an emerging mental health issue before a crisis occurs.

The Live4Life model focuses on an ‘upstream’ approach to mental health education and suicide prevention to build resilient young people and communities. This is achieved by ‘wrapping’ protective factors around young people such as supportive relationships, support at critical times, positive help-seeking attitudes, connection to family, school and community and positive peer role models.

The school-based project to support Youth Crew activities and mental health education was all geared up ready to go when COVID first struck and schools and communities across the country went into lock-down.

After a year of navigating the challenges of not being able to deliver face-to-face programs and other challenges such as the loss of the Youth Engagement Officer, who normally coordinates the crew activities, the group developed new strategies and approaches that enabled them to successfully deliver the activities in a COVID-safe manner, including a new model of blended Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training.

The group was highly successful in maintaining the momentum of the project, despite delivering a personal development program and training in a lock-down environment. They launched a social media presence on Instagram during Mental Health Week and created various collateral and promotional materials such as stickers, posters and help-seeking flyers to use in info packs to be distributed to students at in-school promotional events.

Once the Partnership Group was able to recommence activities within the community, they successfully delivered a series of Leadership and YMHFA courses and training sessions using a mix of face-to-face session and a blended online model via Zoom, reaching across six schools and eight allied community-based organisations that work with young people.

The organisation reported that what they were most proud of about the expansion of the Live4Life project into the Southern Grampians Shire, which they estimate has directly benefitted at least 950 people, was the engagement of the young people who joined the Live4Life CREW. They also mentioned the local YMHFA Instructor training, which has increased the community’s capacity to deliver more training across the Southern Grampians region.

The lastest news on the project from the Southern Grampians Live4Life website reports:

The project has led to increased community capacity and shared awareness of preventative mental health strategies through the MHFA training, as well as a deeper engagement with the Partnership Group in a broader context. They report that there is a noticeable increase in collaboration across the Southern Grampians area, possibly due to participation in the Live4Life initiative that connected people and agencies / organisations, and promoted collaboration centred on young people in the Shire.

“I think the most rewarding part of being in the Crew is seeing the difference you’ve wanted to achieve happen. Getting people into the idea of talking about mental health is hard but I think it’s slowly starting to happen, with the Crew being a part of that change.” – 2023 Crew member, Southern Grampians

The beautiful Mid-North Coast of NSW is Gumbaynngirr country, with 15,000 Aboriginals living across the region. COVID had significant impacts on the health and wellbeing of local Gumbaynngirr women in particular: local services found it difficult to meet the needs of community, while research conducted with Gumbaynnggirr people on the ramifications of COVID reported that the restrictions on social connection had serious negative impacts on social and emotional wellbeing and overall health.

Based in Toormina at the southern end of Coffs Harbour, Happy Boxes Project Ltd aims to alleviate barriers to accessing self-care items for Aboriginal women in remote communities by providing packages of self-care products such as soap, deodorant, and shampoo – otherwise known as ‘Happy Boxes’). Recognising the impacts that COVID-19, Happy Boxes capitalised on their connections to the local community to significantly scale up services and programs at their new community hub: Nyami Gawbarri (Women Gathering).

Nyami Gawbarri was able to support local community members to volunteer their time in the space to pack Happy Boxes for remote communities. Together they were able to pack and distribute 689 Happy Boxes to 22 remote communities throughout Australia. This meant that at least 689 women didn’t have to go without essential hygiene products.

In addition, the Happy Boxes team hired a number of local Aboriginal women to provide programs for hub users and consequently the hub went from being open one day per week to five days, offering programs on topics ranging from cultural meditation, Aboriginal art and cooking, to a five-week program called ‘Mob Radio’ – teaching local teenagers how to be radio presenters.

Critical health services that have traditionally had social barriers to access, such as cervical screening programs, also ran out of the hub. Another outcome of being open five days per week was the creation of an Intensive Support Reintegration Program for teenagers consistently being suspended and disengaged from school. Local schools are now referring their students to Nyami Gawbarri as the organisation can provide a culturally-safe space to spend their suspension, giving back to the local and national communities.

The impact that the project had was described by a local participant:

“The programs for these young women will positively change lives. Providing opportunities for connection and supporting our young women to develop their identity and sense of belonging will have such a huge life lasting impact for them, their families and our Community. Nyami Gawbarri is supporting the development of proud, determined and connected young Jindas.” ~ Anonymous

The level of need for Nyami Gawbarri, and the positive impact that the program of activities over the last twelve months has had for the hub has meant that Nyami Gawbarri is now evolving to become a separate entity and permanent community hub for Gumbaynnggirr women. Critically, throughout this period the project coordinator was able to secure government funding for their role, and hence will be able to continue Nyami Gawbarri’s commitment to provide a culturally-safe space and a plethora of programs beyond the completion of the FRRR-funded project.

Emma Sullings, Chief Executive Officer of Happy Boxes Project Ltd, explains the impact that this grant has had for the hub and the community:

“We are extremely proud of the establishment and succession of a community hub. Nyami Gawbarri stands as a testament to the significance of creating dedicated spaces for women to access a range of services and programs tailored to their unique needs. It is a symbol of community strength, unity and empowerment.”

This inspiring hub has capitalised on opportunity and scaled for the community good – and in the process, showcased how support for locally designed and led initiatives can have long-running positive outcomes. These impressive efforts were supported by a $50,000 grant from FRRR’s Strengthening Rural Communities – Rebuilding Regional Communities program, funded by the Australian Government.