Congratulations to our 2021 $100,000 Primary Grant Recipient!

Youth Insearch 

Youth Insearch is young people helping young people. Its programs empower young people aged 14 to 20 to turn their disadvantages into advantages, enabling them to reach their full potential. Since 1985 Youth Insearch has helped over 30,000 young people to rebuild their lives, and currently assists around 1,000 young people per year across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

The Youth Insearch program consists of two core components: Weekend Workshops and Community Support. Community support includes weekly support groups, peer-to-peer support, case management and mentoring. Youth Insearch also offers Leaders Training which is an essential part of the program, teaching young people skills needed to become a leader within their community. All these elements combine to create significant change in young people.

Need: young people (14-20), with mental health problems, often as a result of domestic violence and abuse, are at risk of poor school performance, homelessness, juvenile incarceration, suicide and long-term mental health problems and unemployment, at great cost to society and themselves.

Approach: providing peer-support programs, weekend workshops and leadership training, via a volunteer-led program designed with youth, for youth, and supported by clinical oversight. In 2020, Youth Insearch partnered with Relationships Australia NSW (RA) to pilot a new approach, whereby a social worker is based in a RA office, to seed a new Youth Insearch cell and grow local youth leaders to operate the model.

Use of Grant: fund a social worker, operating from the Relationships Australia (RA) NSW offices, with clinical supervision from RA, allowing 50 additional young people to attend 15 hours one-to-one support; up to two weekend workshops; and weekly peer-support sessions.

Numbers of Participants: 50 additional young people to be supported over 12 months, and contribute to establishing an ongoing Youth Insearch program. 

Impact: avoiding incarceration, long-term welfare dependency, illegal drug use, etc resulting in improved life trajectories, individual wellbeing and positive contribution to family and society. The statistics for this program are: 79% of participants have re-engaged in education or employment, 81% stopped committing crimes, and 60% stopped or reduced illegal drug use.

Congratulations to the Recipients of our three 2021 $20,000 IMPACT Grants:

Mary’s House 

Mary’s House is a community-funded refuge on the Lower North Shore of Sydney accepting clients of all cultures and denominations from all around Australia.

Mary’s House Services operates Mary’s House Refuge and the Daisy Centre – non-residential domestic violence services – to reach as many women as possible and provide victim-survivors with the tools of empowerment to rebuild their lives. Clients often arrive with just the clothes on their backs. Once their physical and safety needs are addressed, the process of supporting them to rebuild their lives begins. The operations team at Mary’s House Services helps to establish clients in accommodation setting them up with what they need to start again. Relocation services include transitional housing which helps clients establish a rental history, or rental accommodation, perhaps requiring bridging loans, removal services, or the purchase of appliances and furniture if required.

Need: domestic violence and abuse cause fear, unhappiness and suffering to affected women and children, including families on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, and escape is difficult.

Approach: Mary’s House offers a multi-dimensional program that responds to women’s needs at different stages of their transition out of abusive situations. It achieves its outcomes through: Mary’s House refuge – a safe house for women and children escaping domestic violence/abuse; Daisy Centre – integrated support service providing tailored case management for women who have or are experiencing domestic abuse; Lydia House – a transitional home for families exiting Mary’s House for up to 12 months.

Use of Grant: to provide an additional full-time caseworker for the Daisy Centre.

Number of participants: an estimated 40 additional women seeking escape from domestic violence and abuse.

Impact: benefits for women supported by the Daisy Centre include improved mental health; recovery from PTSD; improved emotional wellbeing; and full participation in community life – as well as the benefits for their children.

The Gender Centre 

The Gender Centre is committed to developing and providing services and activities which enhance the ability of people with gender issues to make informed choices. It offers a wide range of services to people with gender issues, along with their partners, family members and friends in New South Wales.

The Centre is an accommodation service and also acts as an education, support, training and referral resource centre to other organisations and service providers. The Gender Centre is committed to educating the public and service providers about the needs of people with gender issues. It specifically aims to provide a high quality service, which acknowledges human rights and ensures respect and confidentiality.

Need: transgender children suffer disadvantage and discrimination which cause them difficulties in their education, mental health problems resulting in a suicide rate 20 times the national average, and potentially leading to unemployment and homelessness. The parents of transgender children often face isolation from family and former friends, are ill equipped to support their children, and also suffer mental health problems. Strong families provide the best support to transgender children.

Approach: The Gender Centre is the leading expert for psychosocial support for transgender families in Australia, but most of their funding is for transitional housing. They have been providing broader support for families only by diverting time from other funded work. A Digital Parents Group (DPG) with associated 1:1 emotional support, is the main element of this family support.

Use of Grant: provide 2 years of wages for 3 days per week for the volunteer who is currently administering the DPG and providing 1:1 counselling, and some training for additional admin support. Without this funding, the volunteer will be unable to afford to continue.

Numbers of Participants: estimated 735 families currently use the Centre.

Impact: enable the DPG to continue, with associated 1:1 emotional support, for a further 2 years, during which time they hope to attract longer term funding. The impact of the DPG comes from helping to avoid suicides of both transgender children and their parents, reducing stress and unhappiness, enabling children to continue their schooling successfully, and establishing the basis for productive and satisfying lives.

The Generous and the Grateful 

The Generous and the Grateful exists to bridge the gap and connect the incredible amount of supply, with demand, for the benefit of all. By focusing on specific homewares, of high quality (items we all need and perhaps take for granted) such as a bed, fridge, washing machine, sofa and dining table; their recipients, some of the most vulnerable people in the community, can focus their time and energy on recovery.

From humble beginnings in 2017, with just a few volunteers and an old trailer, The Generous and the Grateful has expanded to include over 50 volunteers; a small team of part time staff; a truck; a strong active board and two rent free warehouses in North Western Sydney. The Generous and the Grateful work with businesses, private donors and partners in kind.  So much good can be created from all forms of excess – property, expertise, products, time, strength, and, most importantly, heart.

Need: lack of furnishings for young people at risk (eg leaving foster care), domestic abuse survivors, refugees and homeless people when placed in accommodation, resulting in them living like a homeless person, sleeping rough, but under a roof, while good furniture is sent to landfill by hotel and serviced accommodation operators for lack of an easy alternative use.

Approach: provide furnishings for young people at risk, domestic abuse survivors, refugees and homeless families by re-homing of quality goods which are saved from landfill. They are a service provider to a number of charities, providing the logistics services to recover and distribute unwanted furniture and white goods from retailers, hotels etc, and to deliver them to accommodation.

Use of Grant: fund furnishings for 130 homes through agencies who don’t have funding for furniture.

Numbers of Participants: an estimated 390 people in 130 homes.

Impact: good basic furniture – beds, table and chairs, fridge, etc – can significantly help people facing extreme adversity to recover with dignity, re-gain their confidence and self-worth, and enable them to re-build their lives, for the benefit of themselves, their children and their community. Frees up the time of the agencies supporting the re-housed young people and families to focus on vital interventions like financial literacy support, trauma recovery and programs to boost education and employability activities, and avoids furniture going to landfill.

Congratulations to our 2021 Semi-finalists:

Fitted for Work 

Fitted for Work helps disadvantaged women get work, keep work, and navigate through working life with success. Fitted for Work believe in a future that is equal, positive and powerful for women in the workplace. Their goal is to provide women with practical skills, knowledge, self-esteem and know-how so that they can move forward with confidence in the workplace.

Harding Miller Education Foundation

Harding Miller Education Foundation believes that when you educate a girl, you break the vicious cycle of poverty. Girls supported with equipment, money for resources and tutoring and coaching will be much more likely to complete high school and undertake further education after school.

The Harding Miller Education Foundation Scholarship Program’s mission is to create a positive social impact by lifting educational outcomes of high potential Australian girls currently experiencing disadvantage. The Foundation supports socio-economically disadvantaged girls across Australia through a $20,000 scholarship over four years of high school. The program gives these girls the tools and resources they need to not only complete high school, but to reach their potential and build direct pathways to tertiary education. The Foundation has awarded 600 scholarships since 2016 across 320+ schools in every state and territory of Australia.

Stewart House 

Stewart House provides services to children from the public education system in NSW and the ACT who would benefit from a positive intervention to build their self esteem and personal development. The service is a holistic model of care. Children stay at Stewart House for a period of two weeks during which they undertake activities that include: recreational and social activities to build self-esteem and resilience; learning/school activities for social and emotional skills development; preliminary and ad hoc counselling; and health screening (including medical, dental and optometric).

The facility accommodates 84 children at a time. Typically the majority of children are aged 8 to 14 years. Stewart House’s services are based on a wellness and personal development model of care.

StreetWork

StreetWork has been delivering prevention and early intervention strategies to at-risk young people in Sydney’s North since 1980. StreetWork’s mission is to ensure at-risk young people have the same opportunities as their peers – to grow, achieve their dreams, and develop as a person with a high self-esteem – through the delivery of innovative and effective early intervention programs.

The organisation supports young people aged 11-25 and seeks to stabilise and/or improve a young person’s risk across five key areas: mental health, suicide and self-harm, youth crime, early school leavers not engaged in employment, and youth homelessness. StreetWork aims to improve access to education, training and/or employment, as well as provide assistance in addressing mental health concerns, alcohol or substance misuse and youth crime. This is essential to alleviate long-term disadvantage and promote general wellbeing.