Recently Completed Grants
FareShare Australia: One Million Meals from Rescued Food
Grant: $25,000
www.fareshare.net.au
FareShare (formerly One Umbrella) provides free, tasty, nutritious meals to the hungry and the homeless using donated food not needed by markets, caterers, and retailers around Melbourne. This project aimed to recruit new suppliers of unwanted food so as to increase the number of meals prepared by FareShare and distributed to over 100 charities. The outcome was successful with Woolworths, Heinz, SPC Ardmona and Ward Mackenzie all coming on board as donors to FareShare. Production of meals tripled from 15,000 to 45,000 meals per month. FareShare was able to increase the diversity and nutritional value of meals. In addition to supplying more meals, they were also able to supply the charities with more fresh produce as well.
Florey Neurosciences Institutes: Pilot project: Improving Health Outcomes in Stroke Patients – A shared team approach between nurses and doctors
Grant: $20,000
www.florey.edu.au
Stroke is the second most common cause of death and a major disability in the community. This trial sought to test whether using Medicare-funded Chronic Disease Management (CDM) plans, along with nurse-assisted interventions aimed at long-term management, improved health outcomes in stroke patients. It aimed to change the way patients are cared for after their stroke in order to prevent second and subsequent strokes, and to improve the quality of life. The researchers gained essential insights from the trial enabling them to successfully apply for a much larger grant of nearly $1.7m from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for a much larger multicentre resarch study over a five year period.
Wimmera UnitingCare: Remlaw Bushfire ‘Coming Together’ Project
Grant: $20,000
www.wimmera.unitingcare.org.au
The 'Coming Together Project' involved the Haven Community near Horsham which was affected by the Remlaw Bushfire in February 2009. Members of the community, students from Haven and Dimboola Primary Schools and Karkana Support Services worked with local and other artists to create a multimedia and installation exhibition using refuse materials and product specific to the region. Imagery of the fire was supplied by the Haven Centenary Committee and members of the community, interviews were conducted with people affected by the fire and personal relics collected. The exhibition was launched as part of the Wimmera's Awakenings Festival which was held 21-25 October 2009. This grant was awarded from the HMS Bushfires Grants Fund. Other funding partners included: Horsham Rural City Council ($10,000) and UnitingCare Disaster Fund ($45,000).
Project Platypus Association: Protecting Paddock Trees
Grant $79,500 over two years
www.platypus.org.au
Paddock trees form a vital part of the Australian landscape. They stabilise soils, reduce salinity, provide shelter and food for wildlife, provide shelter for stock, sequester carbon from the atmosphere and form an important part of the rural aesthetic. However, paddock trees are rapidly diminishing in numbers and dying because of drought, parasites, soil compaction and bushfire or being removed for agriculture. This project undertook a community education program to support the protection and replanting of paddock trees in the upper Wimmera River catchment. Over the life of the project 4,960m of protective fences were erected and 6,720 paddock trees planted and guarded involving nearly 100 landholders. One of the findings from this project was that group plantings of at least 40 or more trees was more effective than establishing or trying to retain single paddock trees. Other funding partners included the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority ($105,000 over two years).
Emergency Accommodation and Support Enterprise (EASE): Solving the Jigsaw ‘Kids Business’ Documentary
Grant: $26,700
www.solvingthejigsaw.org.au
The Jigsaw program supports teachers to encourage and facilitate grade 5 & 6 students to discuss issues of concern, build self-esteem and improve resilience and peer support. The program is supported by a range of resources and training for teachers. In preparation of the national screening of a new documentary titled "Kids Business - Solving the Jigsaw' on ABC TV, the Trust supported the development of a range of additional resources, media packs, pre-screening events, communications to key stakeholders and media training so that people and organisations who viewed the documentary had somewhere to go for additional information and resources. The documentary reached an audience of 430,000 ABC viewers and over 800 responded to the on-line forum conducted post-viewing. Since the screening of the program, an extensive Kid’s Business Study Guide has also been produced.
La Trobe University: Evaluation of the ‘Children’s Koori Court of Victoria’
Grant: $50,000
www.latrobe.edu.au
An independent evaluation conducted by Professor Allan Borowski, School of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University found that the Children’s Koori Court (CKC) fostered a strong sense of ownership of juvenile justice on the part of the Koori community, along with an ‘acceptable’ recidivism rate of just under 60 per cent, very low failure–to-appear and court order breach rates and also found that Koori defendants who did reoffend, that their offences were generally less serious than the offences that brought them to the CKC in the first instance. The CKC was found to be an important vehicle for satisfying the demands of Indigenous people for a more effective legal system and these new relationships will go a long way to reducing the overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in the juvenile justice system.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra: ‘Ping’ – Remote Music Education Project
Grant: $54,050
www.mso.com.au
www.pingmusic.com.au
‘Ping’ trialled the delivery of music education using remote communication tools such as online forums, website, blog, video-conferencing and other methods with four schools in Western Victoria (Hawkesdale P12 College; Heywood Secondary College; Casterton Secondary College & Casterton Primary School). This was a collaborative program between the MSO, Orchestra Victoria, the Song Room, Country Education Project, 3MBS FM and the Department of Education & Early Childhood Development. The program featured musicians, students and teachers to form a blended learning approach allowing rural and regional schools to gain access to expert artists and the inspiration and skills to engage their creativity. The State Government has funded the development of a business plan to take the program forward in 2010 & 2011.