NEW APPROACHES – OLD PROBLEMS

As a result, many not-for-profit organisations work hard to address the needs of Australians affected by homelessness, poverty and disadvantage. When trying to unpick these complex issues, success often comes from taking a new approach to an old problem.

often directed to pilot initiatives that test the potential to assist the most vulnerable members of our community. Once new ideas are proven, the Foundation would then invest further to ensure successful models develop into programs offering long-term benefits to the community.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, much of the Foundation’s community services or social welfare grants (as they were known at the time) were focused on providing general support to charities; responding to various fundraising appeals, assisting with the purchase of equipment or helping to fund additional staff members. During this time, grants were small (the average grant size in the 1990s was $6,500).

Since the 1990s, grants made in the Community Wellbeing program have become more targeted and

One of the Foundation's core funding principles is to fund programs and projects that innovate, taking a new approach to solving problems, especially those that can be evaluated and show the potential to expand and further develop.

The Foundation shifts its focus over time to support new approaches to entrenched problems. An example of this is a series of grants in the 1990s directed to 'no interest loan schemes' (NILS) and programs that assist disadvantaged and vulnerable people to acquire essential items while developing life skills such as financial literacy, and to undertake work-readiness training.

No interest loans offer people on low incomes access to credit and pathways to mainstream finance options. Recognising the potential of this novel form of microfinance to promote financial inclusion, the

Foundation began funding NILS in 1992 with grants to eight welfare agencies. By January 2000 that number had grown to 27 and in the next nine years the Foundation made 32 more grants to NILS programs, totalling more than $1 million.

In 2012, the Foundation supported a simple but innovative NILS explicitly aimed at tackling homelessness initiated by Whittlesea Community Connections Inc. The program involved helping people prepare quality rental applications, offered financial counselling and loaned funds to pay bonds – often the biggest hurdle for vulnerable Australians in securing private rentals. The Foundation’s $34,000 grant to the group was also instrumental in leveraging further funding from the Mercy Foundation and the Sidney Myer Fund.

These days, NILS are widely supported by several mainstream banks and financial institutions. It’s just one more example of how initial philanthropic support can help a good idea become a sustainable model for supporting people in need.

The Foundation has also championed organisations offering financial literacy programs, like Good Shepherd Youth and Family Service. The Melbourne-based service helps women develop economic independence so that they can make considered exits from violent relationships while staying connected to their communities and building stable futures for themselves and their children. In 2013, the Foundation awarded a three-year, $261,000 grant to Good Shepherd’s Firmer Foundation program to provide highly specialised legal and financial advice to women, including education regarding financial entitlements and legal rights, and money management training. Equipping women with these tools makes them more likely to avoid housing insecurity and remain independent of crisis agencies.

St Kilda Mums clothes bundle.

Image: My Little Tribe Photography.

Volunteers in action at St Kilda Mums warehouse in Clayton, Melbourne.

Image: My Little Tribe Photography.

Similarly, the Foundation has supported vulnerable women through grants to organisations such as St Kilda Mums in Melbourne and Karinya Young Women’s Service Inc in Launceston, Tasmania – both of which provide services for new mothers.

Kids Under Cover provides young people with studio accommodation erected in their family's backyard. This simple solution has prevented these young people from becoming homeless.

Image: Kids Under Cover.

St Kilda Mums has grown from a small group of volunteers sorting and rehoming baby goods in inner city Melbourne to a state-wide organisation providing goods to thousands of families across Victoria. In 2020 the Foundation awarded St Kilda Mums $100,000 towards establishing a new warehouse to handle the thousands of items it processes each year.

The Karinya Young Mums 'n' Bubs Program provides intensive case management and independent accommodation to young pregnant women and teenage parents at risk of homelessness in Launceston. This proven program was awarded a three-year, $114,000 grant in 2015 to support its work.

Several programs supported by the Foundation have focused on ground-breaking ways to care for vulnerable women at risk or in contact with the justice system. From 2011 the Foundation has supported the Women and Mentoring (WAM) organisation with four grants totalling $410,000 to facilitate mentors to work with women who have been charged with crimes and are awaiting trial. Working with women in these circumstances is often about providing individualised support, for example ensuring the person charged arrives in court therefore minimising the chance of jail time.

Supporting programs for those at risk of entering the justice system remains a focus area of the Foundation. In 2020, it awarded TaskForce Community Agency a two-year, $200,000 grant towards the Living Free Project. Living Free is a sustained intensive outreach case management program that works with women at risk of entering or in contact with the justice system. The holistic approach provides a wrap-around service based on the needs of the person and matches those needs with the appropriate service provider, whether it be housing, rehabilitation or legal support. An outreach worker maintains ongoing contact with individuals for 12 months alongside the other services required. This case coordination approach provides a much-needed link between services.

Disadvantaged youth is another vulnerable group that the Foundation has supported through innovative programs designed to address their specific needs.

Kids Under Cover has received $115,500 across two grants (2010 and 2015) to fund programs providing studio housing for young people to remain living near family and community. Building relocatable studios and complementing them with scholarships for homeless and at-risk young people, Kids Under Cover helps keep families together and young people engaged in education.

While many of the Foundation’s Community Wellbeing grants have supported programs focused on particular at-risk groups, there is also a history of funding pioneering initiatives that aim to benefit the greatest number of disadvantaged people in our society.

This includes initiatives like Good360 Australia, a nationwide service that connects surplus brand-new goods with people most in need.

Since 2015, Good360 has been awarded five grants totalling $1,050,000 to implement its redistribution model for excess goods and scale up operations to meet increased demand. In 2020, funding helped cover increased postage and handling costs caused by demand driven by the bushfire crisis and COVID-19. Not only does Good360 provide tangible assistance distributing essential items to those who need them, it also diverts unsold goods from landfill in a way that is operationally efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Good360 team members shared messages of kindness during the COVID-19 pandemic while shipping goods around Australia.

Image: Good360.

Good360 has distributed over 33 million items to Australians; representing over $285 million of essential items that bring hope and dignity to people at their most vulnerable. Good360's goal is to distribute $1 billion of goods by 2025 to Australians that need them most. The Foundation will continue to support organisations that seek to improve circumstances for vulnerable members of the community, particularly those organisations that adopt innovative approaches to address disadvantage.

Since 2013, Good360 has:

• received $298 million in goods from businesses

• distributed $285+ million to not-for-profits (NFPs) and schools

• supported 3000+ NFPs and schools

• collected 7.6+ million items from stores.

Chapter opening image: Karinya Young Mums ‘n’ Bubs is a program that has made a positive difference in Northern Tasmania since 2012. It is currently funded through a three-year funding agreement with the Tasmanian State Government.