We are particularly grateful to the trustees of the Grosvenor Foundation, managed by Equity Trustees, for supporting two of our grants. Since 2004, the Grosvenor Foundation has been a staunch donor and valuable funder and friend to the VWBT.  Their support brought the total given to VWBT to more than $600,000 – an extraordinary recognition of the power of our grants to make a difference in the lives of women and girls.

We are also very grateful to Australian Communities Foundation and donors who supported several grants.

In 2016, we designated one grant to be known as a Flagship Grant because it goes to the heart of VWBT’s charitable purposes of providing relief of poverty, sickness, suffering, distress, misfortune, destitution, or helplessness among Victorian women and girls.

2016 Flagship Grant

Winda-Mara Aboriginal Corporation, Heywood – Aboriginal Family Therapy Training Program 

$32,000 grant

The Bouverie Centre at La Trobe University will deliver a Post Graduate Certificate in Family Therapy to Indigenous and non Indigenous staff from four Aboriginal organisations in south-west Victoria. This training will increase the knowledge and capacity of local staff to address family breakdown within an Indigenous healing framework, reducing children placed in care and building resilience and connectedness within community in a culturally appropriate framework.

2016 General Grants

Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre, Dandenong – My Mother, My Friend

$9,700 grant

A relationship/wellbeing program to assist refugee Afghan mothers and their teenage daughters with their settlement in Melbourne, by bridging the cultural gaps between a traditional Afghan culture and what they are experiencing in Australia.  Central to the success of the project is developing a better understanding between mothers and their daughters, including the different cultural perspectives they have and how this may impact upon their relationship. 

 

Women’s Health Grampians, Ballarat – Exploring general practitioners’ referral practices for unplanned pregnancies in rural Victoria

$14,000 grant

To build an evidence framework to inform advocacy, planning and service development in order to improve access to options for women in the Grampians region who are dealing with unplanned pregnancy. Learnings from the research will inform planning of Women’s Health Grampians and West Victoria Primary Health Network, wider information provision, workforce development and training for regional GPs, with potential for statewide organisations, particularly Family Planning Vic and The Royal Women’s Hospital, to tailor clinical support to meet the needs of GPs and practice staff in the region.

 

Good Cycles Limited, Melbourne – Community Bike Shed: Women’s Only Space 

$7,900 grant

Providing an opportunity for women to meet and learn cycle skills, bike maintenance, and receive a free bike, helmet, light and lock. It builds on the Spokeswomen project for culturally diverse young women, funded by VWBT in 2014. The once a month gathering allows the women to meet in a safe, supportive, and focused environment. The need for this space has been driven by women from a variety of social, cultural and religious backgrounds, and includes women who have been victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and abuse.

 

River Nile Learning Centre, Melbourne – Swim Project for Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women 

$2,000 grant – a partnership grant with the Australian Communities Foundation

Provide swimming lessons to newly arrived refugee and asylum seeker women and their pre-school children. The lessons will run weekly over a 16-week period in the second half of the school year.  Lessons aim to:

• Teach valuable skills to help keep students and their children safe around water; and
• Make swimming such a positive experience, that our students and their children will continue with swimming after the course is completed.

 

Helping Hoops, Melbourne – Helping Hoops Female Engagement Officer 

$18,000 grant– supported by the Grosvenor Foundation 

The Female Engagement Officer position was established in August 2015 with a Grosvenor Foundation/VWBT grant. The staff member has successfully established an inclusive, welcoming environment at each program, worked extensively in the community to promote opportunities open to girls and achieved the objective of 35% female attendance rate across all programs. This grant will fund the position for a further year. It will provide an excellent opportunity to strengthen work on female participation and will influence attitudes and have benefits beyond the basketball court, including how young men view women both now and in the future. 

 

Wirrpanda Foundation, Bendigo – Deadly Sista Girlz – Officer 

$15,000 grant – supported by the Grosvenor Foundation 

An education and healthy lifestyle program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls aged 8-18 years. Positive female Indigenous role models provide culturally appropriate individual mentoring support to up to 25 Aboriginal girls attending Eaglehawk and Weeroona Colleges, Bendigo. Weekly activities are designed to develop participants into future leaders in their families and communities and focus on better education, employment and health outcomes by improving participant’s knowledge and subsequent lifestyle decisions. A Deadly Sista Girlz camp will be held in December 2016 to reward participants for their improved school attendance, behaviours and academic results.

 

The Push Inc. – Girls Rock! Melbourne 

$5,000 grant – a partnership grant with the Australian Communities Foundation

A unique, five-day intensive music program for young women (12-17 yrs) run by female mentors, it aims to increase participation of girls and gender non-conforming youth in the male-dominated music industry. Participants will receive instrument lessons, form a band, and create, perform and record a song at a public showcase. Well-known female musicians will perform during lunchtime, and workshops will focus on women’s empowerment, including personal safety/self-defence, positive body image, creating healthy social networks, Feminism 101, and music HERstory.

 

Berry Street Victoria, Morwell, Noble Park and Shepparton – Better Outcomes – Brighter Futures: supporting young women at the Berry Street School, Stage 1

$10,000 grant

Development of a new education stream for girls attending the Berry Street School who have been severely impacted by trauma from family violence, abuse and neglect, in order to provide a safe, trauma-informed space for them to discuss issues and barriers to positive future pathways. Seeks to break intergenerational cycles of disadvantage by providing the extra support so girls are able to maximise their potential in the Berry Street pathways initiatives.

 

Emerge Women and Children’s Support Network, Melbourne southern suburbs – Empowering Women to overcome effects of Domestic Violence 

$15,000 grant 

Pilot project to ensure women in the Melbourne’s southern metropolitan region are provided with focussed ‘in-depth’ support to help overcome the effects of domestic violence. Therapeutic support will be through art therapy to help women deal with their trauma, process their experience and develop self-help strategies. It aims to assist women to understand the impact of violence on them and their children; build resilience, self-esteem and wellbeing; empower them to choose healthy relationships and break the cycle of violence by not returning to abusive relationships. It will include issues faced by multi-cultural women in abusive relationships.

 

Health Issues Centre, statewide – Development of a health literacy program to improve health literacy of women from refugee backgrounds Stage 2 

$5,000 grant – a partnership grant with Australian Communities Foundation 

The project builds on Stage 1, funded by VWBT 2014, which consisted of consultations with women from refugee backgrounds about their health information needs and the best ways to distribute this information to their communities.

This second stage will:

• map existing health literacy tools, resources and programs available for refugee communities in Australia
• analyse these tools, resources and programs against the needs articulated by participants in the consultations, and
• develop a program for women from refugee backgrounds which will be evaluated in the third stage of the project.

By the conclusion of the project the program will be ready for piloting with refugee health nurses, settlement and asylum seeker support workers.