Free workshop for new round of charity funding

Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation’s latest funding round has opened with a pool of more than $500,000 available for new or existing projects which support health, young people and social wellbeing on the Central Coast.

Local not-for-profit organisations and community groups have until Monday, May 1, to apply.

To assist with the application process, the Charitable Foundation is hosting a free, online workshop onWednesday, April 5, from 10.30am to noon and groups can register online at https://www. newcastlepermanent.com.au/ charitable-foundation/funding

Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation Acting Executive Officer, Anita Lucas, encouraged both new and existing partners to apply, particularly in the face of challenging economic times.

“Regional charities are facing the unique combination of increased community demand for services and ongoing barriers to the delivery of their services,” she said.

“It’s been a tough couple of years for not-for-profits, having come through COVID and all the challenges it presented, to now when the rising cost of living is placing pressure on local communities and driving an even higher need for assistance on the Central Coast.”

Since being founded in 2003 as a gift to the community, Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation has provided more than $25M in funding, touching hundreds of thousands of lives.

Applications for funding can be made via the Charitable Foundation website and close at 11.59pm on Monday, May 1.

Recent projects on the Central Coast include $120,000 to Wheelchair Sports NSW ACT for the Northern Region Road Safety and Disability Awareness

Roadshow which visits schools, vacation and after school care centres, tertiary institutions and businesses.

The University of Newcastle received $88,600 for the Social and Economic Resilience of Young Migrants and Refugee Women program which provides employment and skills development for young at-risk migrant and refugee women in culturally and linguistically diverse and “hard-to-reach” communities in regional NSW.

On Saturday, March 18, an energetic crowd flocked to Words at Wagstaffe for a full day of conversations between some of Australia’s best-known journalists and public figures.

This was the third time the annual event has been held in partnership between local notfor-profit Words on the Waves Writers Festival and community