Foundation
Organisations we support
The Bennelong Foundation provides support to a number of charities and community organisations across Australia, which in turn enables these organisations to deliver a broad range of initiatives to support the community in which we live. Outlined below are several of the most recent recipients of grants from the Foundation.
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Ganbina
Ganbina believes that every young person has the right to believe in a positive future. Established in 1997, Ganbina was founded to ensure that the 6,000-strong indigenous community in Shepparton, Victoria, would achieve equal representation in the local economy by supporting indigenous youth to realise their full career potential.
Its success has been due to a unique, proactive approach in tackling the tough issues associated with poor education retention rates and employment participation for indigenous people. Ganbina’s suite of programmes engages the individual and their families to recognise the interconnection between education, training and employment. These benchmark practices develop the individual’s formal education and life skill capabilities and have, in a two-year period, resulted in a 10 per cent increase in school retention and placed 177 indigenous youth in full-time, sustainable employment.
Ganbina’s outcome-focussed approach to meeting community need has separated it from the traditional government funding sources.
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Butterfly Foundation
The Butterfly Foundation was founded in August 2002 by Claire Vickery, a mother of two daughters who have suffered from eating disorders. A six-year journey of seeking appropriate treatment options for her daughters uncovered a system of health provision for eating disorders desperately in need of systemic change, which motivated Claire to form The Butterfly Foundation.
The Foundation provides support for Australians who suffer from eating disorders and their carers through direct financial relief, increasing understanding and awareness in the community through the support of existing services, education and research projects, and advocating for increased recognition of the desperate needs of sufferers and carers at community and government levels.
Bennelong Foundation has provided funding for the employment of a Body Image and Health Promotion Project Officer, which will enable the Butterfly Foundation to expand its presence in primary and secondary schools to focus on building resilience, boosting self esteem and reducing negative body image. This work is vital to support young people who may be at risk of physical or mental illness as a result of poor body image and low self esteem.
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Family Life’s YouthWorx - Growth for Sustainability
Family Life’s YouthWorx programme provides at-risk 16-19 year olds with structured job-readiness training, work experience, personal support and a pathway to employment and community participation.
Situated in a thriving, up-market Opportunity Shop at 316 Charman Road, Cheltenham in Victoria, the YouthWorx programme is made possible thanks to the dedication of caring volunteers who mentor and coach the young people and assist with running the business. The programme commenced in 2003 and to date has assisted 90 vulnerable young people to develop improved self confidence and work-readiness skills.
Thanks to the support of the Bennelong Foundation, Family Life is set to achieve its goals of assisting an additional 40 young people and operating a financially sustainable social enterprise by 2010.
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Child Wise
Child Wise is Australia’s leading international child protection charity, working across Australia and over 15 Asia Pacific countries. Their goal is to eradicate abuse and enhance the wellbeing of children as they know the biggest threat to children’s futures is abuse. Child Wise services include support and counselling, as well as solution-focussed programmes which educate and support individuals and communities to protect children.
The Speak-Up programme is designed to empower people to speak up for children and prevent child sexual abuse. There is an overwhelming need for preventative programmes within Australia as a case of child abuse is reported every two minutes. Child Wise’s objectives are to:
- raise awareness about the impact of child abuse;
- work with communities to recognise the warning signs;
- respond to children at risk;
- provide assistance to those who have been affected;
- educate the community about prevention;
- develop a trusting protective social environment; and
- make children feel valued.
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Western Chances
Western Chances assists young people in Melbourne’s western suburbs to realise their potential through the provision of scholarships and other related programmes. Founded in 2003, they have granted scholarships to talented and deserving people and are proud of the impact they have made in the lives of young people in Melbourne’s west. Western Chances' focus is to build the community through its young people, overcoming some of the inherent disadvantage in their lives.
Bennelong Foundation has provided funding for up to 50 scholarships per year over a three-year period from 2008. The main objective of the project is to ensure that the talented young people Western Chances identify remain at school until Year 12, outperform the average Tertiary Entrance Score at their school and have a clear pathway to further education and skills development.
The scholarships benefit the individual scholarship recipients as well as provide relief to families and assistance to the schools they attend. The programme is about change, not charity – a hand up, not a hand out.
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Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation (SAKGF)
Renowned chef and food writer, Stephanie Alexander, established the innovative and unique Kitchen Garden Programme at one pilot school at Collingwood College in 2001. It is now being enjoyed by 3,000 Victorian children in 27 schools each week. SAKGF recently announced that an additional 22 Victorian schools will begin to establish the programme in coming months, and will also commence the national roll-out of the programme to 190 schools in all states and territories over the next four years.
SAKGF are at the forefront of a food education revolution in Australia, engaging young children in growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing fresh food at primary school. They seek to provide children with positive,
hands-on experiences and the essential life skills of learning how to plant, nurture and cook fresh, delicious seasonal food. SAKGF believe that offering these positive experiences and skills at an early age form the basis of good, life-long habits and create the food lovers of the future.The project that Bennelong Foundation has approved supports SAKGF’s Disadvantaged Schools Project, assisting eight Victorian primary schools that experience some type of disadvantage (socio-economic, remote location or minimal community support) and who are currently establishing the Kitchen Garden Programme.
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Victorian Arabic Social Services’ Anti-Racist Action Band Project
The Anti-Racist Action Band (ARAB) is run by Victorian Arabic Social Services. It is a unique, high energy youth performing arts project currently working with 100 youth from 30 different cultures in the North and North West of Melbourne.
Through the teaching and performing of a hybrid of rap, beat box, Derbakki (Arabic drumming), spoken word, belly dance, hip hop, video and comic monologue, ARAB aims to increase confidence, self-esteem and challenge racism and gang culture in the region. Since it began in 2004, the project has worked with approximately 170 youth and performed at 80 community and public events to over 20,000 people, a large percentage of these being a youth audience.