People stories


The Linen SHIFT, Byron Bay, NSW
Hannaford Club Inc, Western Downs, QLD
Big HART Inc, Tasmania
headspace Wagga Wagga, NSW
Investing in Rural Community Futures

Laundry enterprise benefits social fabric of Byron Bay


Arakwal Country

An innovative social enterprise laundry service from The SHIFT Project in Byron Bay aims to increase financial wellbeing, employability, and community connection of vulnerable local women – and ultimately relieve homelessness. The Linen SHIFT provides transitional employment alongside training, mentoring, and skill development to help disadvantaged women sustainably enter the workforce. It’s flexible to the unique needs of individual women and employs a qualified support worker to address housing needs and underlying hardships of participants.

Through the ANZ Seeds of Renewal program, FRRR helped to fund The Linen SHIFT project’s expansion and relocation at a critical point in their growth, with a grant of $14,265 to purchase an ironing roller. Since launching in March 2020, several women have been employed and provided with income and stability. Support letters from regular clients give glowing reviews, and there’s lots to be proud of.

“Our women have provided feedback that since joining our team they feel safe, connected, encouraged and valuable – directly addressing the isolation and low self-esteem that poverty can generate,” said Anne Goslet, The Linen SHIFT’s Managing Director.

And they are set to make an even bigger impact, with projections that in five years the project could support upward of 100 women to shift from disadvantage to independence.

“The SHIFT Project has shown they are intelligent, creative, hard-working & reliable in their approach to growing their service for the benefit of women at risk of homelessness. With each new project they add to the social fabric of our community.”

Elizabeth Jackson, President of Liberation Larder

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Catering for the crowds in Hannaford

Baranggum Country

The small rural town of Hannaford on the Western Downs in Queensland is home to the Hannaford Club Inc – a proud community organisation that hosts countless fundraisers both for the town and further afield. Catering has become a big part of the Hannaford Club’s fundraising efforts over the years. Unfortunately, outdated and slow catering equipment was affecting both volunteers and patrons alike during these events – an upgrade was sorely needed.
 
With a grant from FRRR’s Strengthening Rural Communities program, funded by Dr George Jacobs and Dr Janice Hirshorn, the Club has been successful in obtaining new equipment. This has not only benefitted the Club, but the wider region who can borrow the equipment.

Annie Hubbard from the Hannaford Club said that the Hannaford Campdraft held in May 2021 was their first catered fundraiser since the COVID lockdowns began.
 
“We were so proud to be able to more than adequately cater for a huge crowd of over 300 people quickly and efficiently.

“The new equipment was of great use, and it is so very much appreciated!”

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Coming of age (and sharing the story)

Tommeginne Country

On the north coast of Tasmania, communities experiencing disadvantage are a particularly hard place to grow up, especially as a young woman.

Through the innovative Radio Diaries project, run by Big HART Inc, a group of 11-15 year old participants took ownership of their stories, building their confidence and new creative digital skills at the same time.

By pairing these young, disadvantaged women from north-west Tasmania with professional audio artists, they were able to create compelling podcast pieces exploring the lives of young women, like themselves, growing up in a disadvantaged community.

A grant of $10,000 from the Strengthening Rural Communities program, funded by the Bertalli Family Foundation, supported the development and presentation of the podcasts, including the workshops and mentoring.

The body of work was showcased at a community event marking International Women’s Day in March 2020, and attended by friends, family, political and business people, all of whom were moved by the stories that were shared. One piece Trinity’s story, (watch – Facebook video with animation) has since been showcased at an online audio conference presented by a leading podcast agency, and even picked up by the ABC (listen).

This was a wonderful project that allowed young, at-risk women to become the drivers of changing perceptions around their capabilities, and has armed them with new confidence and creative digital skills.

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Watch Trinity’s story
Listen to the podcast

headspace Wagga Wagga provides crash course in ‘adulting’

Wiradjuri Country

headspace Wagga Wagga teamed up with local organisation Youth Reference Group (YRG) to help bridge the knowledge gap for local young people transitioning into adulthood. Their aim was to better equip them with the skills they’d need to find work or confidently move to larger centres to study. Together they developed the “What I Wish I Knew” video collection covering a range of topics about “Adulting”.

Using a $7,000 FRRR ABC Heywire Youth Innovation grant, funded by The Sally Foundation, a professional videographer was engaged to help film 10 videos that became a crash course in how to “adult”.

The topics included learning about the voting process and understanding tax and superannuation. The videos were posted to social media to reach as many young people as possible, given restrictions on physical showings due to COVID-19.

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WATCH the “What I Wish I Knew” videos

Investing in Rural Community Futures

For the last two and a half years, FRRR has been piloting a new model to strengthen the capacity of local not-for-profit organisations, through the Investing in Rural Community Futures program. This program works at a community-level, bringing local not-for-profit organisations together to agree on priorities that will make the entire local NFP sector stronger. A local facilitator, engaged by FRRR, supports the groups, arranging training and access to resources to strengthen local capacity.

There are now seven sites across NSW, thanks to the support of founding partners Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, the Snow Foundation and Bendigo Bank’s Community Enterprise Foundation.

This model is already making a significant long-term impact, with funding committed to support each of the seven places involved for five years.

We have also seen participating communities secure additional funding and resources for community-identified priorities, often attributing their success to skills gained and connections made through the IRCF program.

For example, in the Nambucca Valley, FRRR provided initial funding to Mujaay Ganma Foundation to develop a garden concept that offers an employment pathway for three trainees to build the capacity of the organisation. This project has now secured nearly $300,000 to fund a further two years’ of operation and an additional five trainees.

In the same community, poor telecommunications was identified as a significant issue. The local IRCF Facilitator gathered NFP feedback and fed it into Council’s conversations with telco’s, leading to a $971,250 upgrade to infrastructure.