CEO Anne Long said the Foundation was funding a mix of new partners and projects as well as continuing funding for three existing partners’ projects that improve the lives of families in regional NSW and the Gold Coast.
Raise Foundation will receive $44,000 to deliver its Bump mentoring program for young pregnant women on the Central Coast and Northern Rivers regions. The Sir David Martin Foundation will use $113,000 to deliver its Creative Arts and Vocational Education (CAVE) Program at its Triple Care Farm drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in the NSW Southern Highlands. Camp Quality has $128,000 for its Child Life Therapy Program at Newcastle’s John Hunter Children’s Hospital.
Current charity partner Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) will use $320,000 to continue operating its Early Intervention Readiness Program (EIRP) for families of children newly diagnosed on the autism spectrum in the Hunter and expand service delivery to Port Macquarie. The Foundation funded the pilot program in the Hunter two years ago. Cerebral Palsy Alliance has received $98,500 to deliver its mentoring programs for kids and young adults with cerebral palsy in the Hunter and Central Coast regions. Starlight Children’s Foundation will use $110,000 to continue delivering its Ward Connection diversional therapy program to seven hospitals in the Hunter, North Coast, New England, Central Coast and Gold Coast regions and will also introduce regular visits bys by Captain Starlight to Taree Hospital for the first time. This takes the total funding from the Foundation to Starlight to almost $700,000 over four years support more than 13,500 children and their families.
Ms Long said this funding follows on from a special additional funding allocation of $155,000 in January this year to three current partners - Aspect, Starlight Children’s Foundation and Cerebral Palsy Alliance – to continue providing their unique services to regional communities.
The Foundation is also continuing to partner with another three (3) charities working in the fields of medical research, youth education and training and support for disadvantaged young people and their families. Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) is utilising its Greater Charitable Foundation Fellowship funding of $330,000 to employ an Imaging Coordinator on a world-leading clinical trial of a new clot-busting drug – tenecteplase – for treating stroke patients. Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets is using $287,000 in funding to run 12 early intervention programs for at risk youth in the Hunter Valley. YWCA NSW Community in the Kitchen has received $245,000 to run its program for at-risk young people in the Northern Rivers.
Ms Long said that in addition to funding, an important part of the Foundation’s support for its partners and the community, is co-ordinating opportunities for Greater Bank staff to volunteer with those partners.
“The Greater Charitable Foundation provides significant amounts of funding to its charity partners over an extended period of time to help develop, trial and establish innovative projects that provide long term benefits to the community,” Ms Long said.
The Greater Charitable Foundation was established in 2011 and is funded from the profits of Greater Bank. The Foundation has committed close to $5 million to 14 different charitable organisations since inception.
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