COVID-19 Fund 2020
We launched the Inner North Covid-19 Fund in March 2020, with a focus on supporting local people and charities through:
- Rapid response grants for local not-for-profit community groups to respond in flexible and creative ways
- Emergency relief vouchers for families to buy essentials from local traders, with vouchers allocated by local charities
- Pathways to Employment projects which support people in our community impacted by Covid-19.
We put a public call-out for donations and received $526,939 from local people, businesses and government. The bulk of funds were distributed in the first six months to more than 150 local community groups.
The grants program received the Community Philanthropy Award from Philanthropy Australia in 2022, which recognises best practice in addressing place-based challenges and achieving great outcomes, ability to unlock community assets beyond granting, and adding value through collaboration, partnering, and convening power as a conduit to local knowledge and need.
To continue to support local people, the Northside Media Fund has been established to provide food and other essential items to local people.
Here are some of the projects we funded:
First Australians Media – 3knd Radio (Darebin)
3knd purchased specialist recording equipment that has allowed staff to continue producing content for the radio station whilst working remotely. This enabled the station to maintain their link with their audience during lockdowns.
Muslim Women’s Council of Victoria (MWCV) (Merri-bek)
During lockdowns, the MWCV’s volunteers cooked meals every Friday for those in need, including international students, impoverished families, refugees, homeless, elderly, and people with disabilities. For recipients who are unable to come for collection due to physical limitations, meals were individually packaged and delivered.
During the pandemic, St Mary’s House of Welcome packed and distributed approximately 650 meal packs a day to homeless people temporarily housed in motels, 50 to international students, and around 500 meal packs weekly to rough sleepers as well as providing showers, fresh underwear, hygiene packs, hampers and resources.
Young Changemakers program – 2022
The Young Changemakers Program was established by the Inner North Community Foundation and the Community Bank Clifton Hill – North Fitzroy in 2015 based on similar initiatives run by other community foundations across the globe. Further support from the Ecstra Foundation was received in 2020 to expand the program.
With several of our partners, we launched a leadership program in 2020/21 to provide opportunities for young people to learn about financial literacy and philanthropy so they could contribute to social issues that are important to them. This program ran over one semester, and aided VCAL teachers to support students to learn how to be philanthropists and grant makers.
In 2022, students undertook research and analysis of the organisations supporting vulnerable communities which had been impacted by Covid-19. Students made recommendations to distribute a total of $45,000 to nine eligible organisations.
Conversations about partnerships with other funders to run this program again would be welcome. Please contact the Foundation to discuss.