Hello Melbourne! We have two things to say to you...
Meet our Final Four and Book for our Virtual Grants Night!
You're invited... Tuesday November 23, 7:30-8:30 pm!
Join us for an exploration and celebration of the power of small grants, as we hear from our four finalist charities and our Members vote on which of them will be the recipient of our 2021 Mini-Round Grant!
All welcome. Tickets are free. Zoom link will be provided to registered attendees prior to the event.
We hope to see you there!
Meet our Final Four!
Our Members have read, discussed and checked our applications to our Mini-Round and we have four Fab Finalists to vote for on 23 November. Here they are!
Birth for Humankind seeks to achieve equitable maternal health and wellbeing for all by providing and advocating for respectful pregnancy, birth and early parenting support for women experiencing social and financial disadvantage.
Birth for Humankind's project: Connect and Respect: Online professional development training for maternal health workers. Maternal health workers (student midwives, midwives, doctors, nurses, social workers) will access this training through Birth for Humankind's online learning platform. The materials will be interactive, self-guided and eligible for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points through the Australian College of Midwives and Australian Association of Social Workers.
Lively's vision is a world where all young and older people feel valued, connected and supported. Lively aims to address the three big challenges of social isolation, youth unemployment, and ageism through one simple model; training and employing young jobseekers to offer services that help older people maintain social connection, independence and wellbeing.
Lively's project: Buoyant Connections: Keeping older people connected and young people employed through COVID-19. This project will adapt Lively's existing services to ensure that they can be continued throughout future lockdown restrictions, or when young and older participants are isolating and awaiting COVID results.
River Nile Learning Centre (RNLC) educates refugee and asylum seeker women who are not eligible to enrol in government funded schools, owing to visa, age restriction, or personal circumstances, and provides them with the language, life and work skills to integrate and thrive in our community. RNLC provides holistic support necessary including childcare from fully qualified early childhood educators, assistance with housing, health and legal issues from a dedicated social worker, and provision of MYKI cards and staple food items.
RNLC's Project: Digital Literacy for Refugee & Asylum Seeker Women: a digital literacy program to students who are not eligible for any government funded courses, which will provide the students with the practical skills to confidently live, learn, and work in our society where communication and access to information is increasingly through digital technologies.
StreetSmart engages the broader community to support local responses to homelessness and aims to be a responsive an transparent community ally, connecting local people with their local community. StreetSmart engages with businesses and individuals to raise funds and support smaller services that are embedded in their communities, responding to gaps in service delivery with innovative programs, including but not limited to untied funding, food relief, material/emergency aid, frontline worker support services, etc.
StreetSmart's project: StreetSmart - Digital Inclusion.
StreetSmart Australia is seeking to adapt more digital methods to respond to the COVID-related shift in how they engage with both funding and community/charity partners, including developing new revenue streams through e-commerce partners, building digital skillsets in innovative fundraising methods such as QR codes.
Congratulations to all our finalists - we look forward to seeing you on November 23 and finding out which project our Members will choose to make our major grant to!
Like the rest of the world, COVID-19 has impacted on our community of donors and supporters. It is likely that our total distribution for this round will be in the range of $20,000 - hence, a 'mini-round'. We know that not for profits can do amazing things with small grants, and we look forward to seeing what our amazing Melbourne charities come up with!
HOW IT WORKS
• Grantseekers are invited to apply for an Impact Grant
• Due-diligence undertaken by Grantmaking Sub-Committee
• Grantseekers shortlisted to four Charities
• Additional due-diligence including site visits (members invited to attend) undertaken
• Grants Awards Night – shortlisted charities invited to present
• Members vote
• Impact Grant awarded to charity with most member votes.