$1 Million to improve the lives of families and communities

Eight charities and the people they help will benefit from more than $1 million in new funding announced today by the Greater Charitable Foundation.

CEO Anne Long said the Foundation was funding seven new charity partners as well as continuing funding for Starlight Children’s Foundation. Ms Long said the projects funded will broadly benefit local communities in NSW and the Gold Coast but specifically people needing mental health support, indigenous youth, people impacted by cancer, disadvantaged young people, seriously ill kids in hospital and unpaid carers.

She said that 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 to provide even greater support.

“The Greater Charitable Foundation provides significant 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 Foundation was established in 2011 and is funded from the profits of Greater Bank. The Foundation has committed almost $6 million to 21 charitable organisations and has already directly helped more than 25,000 people since inception.

2016 funding recipients

• Beyondblue - $50,000 for phase II of the Friends and Family Support Program (FFSP) to support families and friends of a person who has attempted suicide.
• Clontarf Foundation - $175,000 for an in school re-engagement program for at-risk, indigenous male students in various regional NSW centres, including Orange, Port Macquarie, Singleton and Taree.
• Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) - $50,000 for a community impact project to address pressing and persistent social issues facing communities in 10 regional NSW LGAs in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions.
• Harry Meyn Foundation - $100,000 for a respite program to support Hunter-based families affected by childhood cancer over the next two years.
• McGrath Foundation - more than $250,000 in funding to employ a second breast care nurse based in Newcastle for two years.
• OzHarvest - $50,000 to deliver the NEST Program for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in the Hunter region over two years.
• Starlight Children’s Foundation Australia - $300,000 for the Captain Starlight program at the John Hunter Children’s Hospital and the Starlight Connection program throughout regional NSW and Gold Coast (specifically to Armidale, Gosford, Maitland, Taree, Tamworth, Lismore and Gold Coast hospitals) over two years. Funding will also support the creation of Livewire in-hospital workshops and the production of a nationwide Livewire Magazine.
• Sutherland Shire Carer Support Service (SSCSS) - $50,000 to build organisational capacity to enable SSCSS to expand its operations into the Illawarra to support more unpaid carers of the frail or people with a disability.