Grants boost to help families in need

A new City of Whittlesea Community Grant program will kick off with an urgent round of grants for food share organisations to support an increasing demand for food due to the rising cost-of-living.  

Council endorsed a new Community Grants framework at its 27 June meeting following community consultation. 

Chair Administrator Lydia Wilson said Council’s new program would ensure a more equitable approach to sharing funds with community groups and individuals. 

The new program offers six grant categories- small, medium, large, individual, unincorporated groups and emergency grants. 

One of the significant changes is the introduction of all year-round grants, with approval rounds conducted on a monthly or quarterly basis. 

Emergency grants are also now proposed to provide immediate support to eligible applicants experiencing unforeseen financial hardship.  

Lydia said the first round of grants would be for local food share groups to share in $100,000 in food relief funding. 

“With rising cost of living pressure, our community groups are telling us that they’ve had an increase in people seeking food relief so we are pleased to be able to respond with this funding boost.” 

“We hope this will enable them to continue to provide these important services and programs to those in our community who are experiencing difficult times.” 

Council has also endorsed an increase in total grants funding of 33% with much of this increase going to support seniors’ groups. 

“This new grants program will enable us to better partner with our community to support the brilliant work being done by many organisations and individuals in our community,” Lydia said. 

Council will be holding information sessions about the changes and reaching out to community groups in coming weeks before the grant program is launched in August 2023. For more information visit City of Whittlesea Grants webpage.