The Communities Innovation Fund is a flagship initiative of Communities 2032 – the Queensland Government’s new 10-year plan for supporting vibrant, inclusive, safe and welcoming communities.
From 2022 until 2026, the Communities Innovation Fund will provide up to $200,000 per year to community organisations for innovative projects that create meaningful connections for Queenslanders experiencing social isolation and loneliness.
In 2023-24 small grants of up to $50,000 were offered to support innovative response to social isolation and loneliness amongst culturally and linguistically diverse people and communities.
Five organisations have been announced as the successful recipients of over $200,000 in grant funding through the Queensland Government’s Communities Innovation Fund.
| Organisation | Project title | Project details | Total grant funding (ex GST) |
|---|---|---|---|
Mareeba Shire Council | Go after your Goals | Mareeba Shire Council will partner with the Mareeba United Football Club, agricultural partners and local farmers to promote social inclusion of Vanuatuan seasonal workers into the Tablelands community. Football is popular in Vanuatu and will provide a culturally appropriate mechanism of integrating farmers into community and tackling historical social isolation and lack of community cohesion. Aligned with the Council’s strategic vision for the region, the project aims to strengthen cultural diversity and boost the economic participation of seasonal works. | $40,700 |
NQ Ummah Care Ltd | Social Connectiveness | North Queensland Ummah Care (NQUC) will target elders, single parents and low literacy community members facing SIL due to language barriers and support them on their journey to gaining Australian citizenship. NQUC will conduct culturally responsive, daily social engagements, through which participants will learn relevant citizenship information in a flexible, motivational format by and amongst community members of the same age, gender and cultural group. | $50,000 |
The Council for LGBTI Health | You Belong | You Belong project aims to increase social belonging and help-seeking capacity amongst LGBTIQ+ refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in Southeast QLD. Through workshops, resources and programs co-designed with community, the project will support community members to better understand healthy social relationships, navigate the complexity of intersecting identities and address barriers to seeking support, with the aim of reducing social isolation and loneliness. | $44,750 |
Ethni Inc | Wildflower Sisters | Ethni Inc will establish a social enterprise for young CALD women to make and sell floral bouquets, providing paid employment alongside social connection opportunities that are often missed due to caring and work responsibilities. Through every ten bouquets sold, the social enterprise model will fund one of the young women to deliver a bouquet to another woman in her community experiencing loneliness or isolation, to engage in cultural connection. This may include for example, older women, women with disabilities or health issues or new mothers, and will have a focus on intergenerational connection and the revitalisation of culture through conversation. The ’Wildflower Sisters’ will also facilitate connecting their flower recipients in with community-based social groups and programs. | $49,910 |
You Belong Australia | Good Neighbours | You Belong Australia will engage and train 300 peer volunteers to build meaningful connections and provide practical support to 1500 CALD community members at risk of social exclusion in Toowoomba and the Gold Coast. In collaboration with other CALD organisations, local churches and schools, the program will deliver personalised, culturally sensitive assistance directly into people’s homes. From conversational English classes and driver mentor lessons to digital literacy support, the program will address immediate SIL barriers amongst migrants and refugees and foster long-term community integration and empowerment. | $50,000 |
| Organisation | Project title | Total grant funding (ex-GST) |
|---|---|---|
| The Trustee for Port Curtis Coral Coast Aboriginal Peoples Charitable Trust | River Connections (Bundaberg) | $508,000 |
| Kuku’nathi Services Pty Ltd | Walk the Talk Yarning Shed in the very remote, disadvantaged Indigenous community of Napranum | $595,278 |
| Institute for Urban Indigenous Health Ltd (IUIH) | Connecting Our Elders (Brisbane South) | $600,000 |
| Central Queensland University | Our Strengths Central Queensland | $427,829 |
| The Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre Inc | Connecting Communities | $533,772 |
| North Townsville Community Hub Inc | Notch Social Inclusion Project: A Place to Belong (Townsville) | $535,122 |
| Organisation | Project title | Total grant funding (ex-GST) |
|---|---|---|
| Queensland University of Technology (QUT) | Improving Social Inclusion Pathways for Low-Income Families in Townsville through Place-Based Creative Collaborations | $50,000 |
| Central Queensland University (CQU) | Gladstone Community Connection and Inclusion Project | $49,800 |
| Tully Support Centre Inc | Young, Strong, Connected (YSC) | $50,000 |
Email grantqueries@chde.qld.gov.au.
Last reviewed:12 November 2024
Last modified:12 November 2024
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence
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