Community A Winner With Grants Program

29 Jun 2007

Close to $400,000 was awarded recently to community organisations and individuals making a difference through Parramatta City Council’s 2007 Community Grants program.

“We have many wonderful individuals and organisations in Parramatta doing amazing things often without any recognition or support. I hope these grants hep them to continue to grow the social and cultural assets of our community,” Parramatta City Lord Mayor Cr David Borger said.

“Our new grants program has two categories that are quite innovative for local government - Social Enterprise and Arts Fellowship. I am really proud to belong to a Council and a community that is so forward thinking in its approach to the care of our community and our culture.”

The Council’s review of the grants program included consultation with a broad range of community organisations, individuals from external stakeholder groups including Council’s Advisory Committees, successful and unsuccessful applicants from previous years and internal stakeholders. In the past five years over $1.9 million has been given to the community in funding.

Some of the highlights from this year in each category include:

100% Voluntary Organisations

• Hope Mission Centre's 'Discover Your Dream Job Pilot Program' - which focuses on reducing youth unemployment.
• Adults with ADHD's 'Improving Community Understanding of Adult ADHD' project - which aims to increase understanding of the issue in the community and also develop a training package to ensure the project’s sustainability.

Organisations with Paid Staff

• Young Christian Workers' 'Drive Safe' project - which aims to reduce/prevent driving offences amongst young African refugees.
• Twenty-Ten Association's 'GLBT' Networking in Parramatta' - which aims to deliver a training program for local services on how to work with GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) young people and connect GLBT young people with the wider community.

Social Enterprise

• Council of Australian Palestinians' 'Matbakh Sitty - Traditional Palestinian Food Catering Business'.
• Igbo Association's 'Igbo Community Cooperative Trading Venture' - feasibility study for the formation of a community based trading co-op around African food and clothing.

Arts Professional Projects

• Information & Cultural Exchange's 'Parramatta Screening' project - which will develop local film and screen based art skills and production capacity through a series of targeted projects and events.
• Powerhouse Youth Theatre's 'Parramatta Feature Films Project' - which aims to mentor and guide young people in the production of two ultra low budget digital feature films.

Arts Fellowship (one awarded)

• John Spiteri is an accomplished local artist who will add significantly to the development of the local arts sector.

Parramatta Heritage & Stories Research

• Parramatta District Cricket Club's 'Parramatta District Cricket Club: their Living Heritage and History' research project will, for the first time, document the long and significant history of this club.
• Reconciliation for Western Sydney's 'Dharug Nation, Past, Future and In Reconciliation' research project - which will document the lives of the Dharug people from colonisation to present in the Parramatta and surrounding areas.

Small Grants

• Lifeline Western Sydney's 'Portable Non-Directive Play Therapy for Trauma’ - which will allow for the purchase of a significant resource tool for therapy with children who have experienced trauma.
• The Deaf Society of NSW's 'Webcam for Literacy Development' - which will see the purchase of a webcam to assist in the development of literacy skills of local deaf students.