Program area grants

Below we feature several of the grants awarded in the Community Wellbeing, Early Childhood Development and Public Health Research programs plus the three grants funded through The Alec Prentice Sewell Gift. 

Details of all grants, including the Medical Research grants, can be found in our Grants Database.

Public Health Research

The George Institute for Global Health
$600,000 over 5 years
Scaling-up reduced-sodium salts to reduce cardiovascular disease and stroke: influencing governments, markets and communities.

The George Institute for Global Health (The George Institute) is a world-leading independent medical research institute headquartered in Sydney. Its mission is to improve the health of millions of people worldwide through innovative approaches to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases and injuries (NCDIs).

The Food Policy Team at The George Institute aims to reduce death and disease caused by poor diets, in particular the over-consumption of salt, in Australia and overseas. In 2013, the Institute was designated as a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Population Salt Reduction, in recognition of its leadership in reducing salt consumption globally. Their remit is to support countries to implement and evaluate strategies to reduce population salt intake in line with global targets, including through a range of innovative approaches such as the use of reduced sodium salts.

With this funding, The George Institute will work in partnership with governments, the food industry and communities to support increased uptake of reduced-sodium salts by consumers and food companies. The project builds on the institute’s previous research to translate strong evidence into policy and practice and aims to increase the uptake of reduced-sodium salts to the level required to save thousands of lives and millions of dollars in health costs in Australia.

Community Wellbeing

SisterWorks Incorporated
$325,000 over 3 years
SisterWorks Capacity Building and Sustainability Project

This capacity-building grant will assist SisterWorks at a pivotal time in the organisation’s history. For eight years SisterWorks has been providing education programs and employment pathways to women from migrant, refugee, and asylum seeker backgrounds so they have the confidence, skills, and knowledge to increase their economic and social inclusion. Significant growth and innovation over the last 12–18 months has seen the organisation increase its reach and impact with Sisters, adapt and respond to the challenges of COVID-19 and scale its programs to reach more and more women across Melbourne and throughout regional Victoria.

The next three years will be a crucial time in building the capacity and sustainability of the organisation. This funding from The Ian Potter Foundation will directly contribute to SisterWorks operational costs including key leadership roles and supporting staff positions, as well as core infrastructure and overheads, technology, premises, and operational costs. Crucially, resourcing the growth of Sisterworks will strengthen it to be able to help more participants.

Early Childhood Development

Centre for Policy Development Limited
$1 million over 5 years
Early Childhood Development (ECD) Initiative: Implementing a new National Guarantee for young children and families.

In 2020, in response to growing evidence about the importance of the early years, the Centre of Policy Development (CPD) established its Early Childhood Development (ECD) Initiative with support from the Minderoo Foundation and The Ian Potter Foundation. The aim of the ECD Initiative is to elevate children on the national policy agenda by developing a vision for an integrated ECD system that will deliver benefits for children, families, and communities, particularly those facing disadvantage.

In November 2021, the Starting Better report was officially released and outlines the steps necessary to guarantee an integrated early childhood development system across Australia.

This grant of $1 million over five years will support CPD to extend upon this initial work continuing to coordinate the ECD Council which has representatives from close to 40 organisations and departments across the sector. This funding will also enable CPD to work with partners to deep dive into some of the policies proposed in Starting Better producing a bank of policy papers to support implementation. The focus of the additional papers will be on implementation issues, including system design, investment, place-based approaches, outcomes & data, and the ECD workforce.

The Alec Prentice Sewell Gift

 
The Song Room Limited
$750,000 over 5 years
Building Capacity for Increased Growth and Impact at The Song Room

This five-year capacity-building grant will allow The Song Room (TSR) to implement its strategic plan over the next five years strengthening its leadership capabilities and its agile organisational culture and capabilities, sustaining and scaling existing programs and piloting new initiatives and partnerships to meet the growing needs of young people, school communities, and partners they exist to serve.

The Song Room's vision is that all Australian children have the opportunity to participate in music and the arts to enhance their education, personal development, and community involvement.

Library For All Ltd
$500,000 over 5 years
Our Yarning

This grant supports Library for All to expand their work in Australia specifically in scaling their Our Yarning program. Our Yarning is a free, digital library of culturally relevant education resources created by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Partnering with communities, Library for All (LFA) will publish 500 books, written by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal children, putting learning in their hands. Delivered with LFA’s offline and off-grid technology, Our Yarning aims to address the disproportionate impact of illiteracy and low education attainment among Aboriginal children and young people by providing access to stories and reading material that mirrors their own, varied experience of the world and their diverse identities across Australia. LFA’s goal is to reach 95,000 Aboriginal children over the next five years and engage 550 Aboriginal adults in creating the collection through workshops across 50 communities.

This project is looking for additional support, please contact Library for All directly if you wish to learn more.

Raise Foundation
$400,000 over 4 years
Together for Youth

The Together for Youth Collective (T4Y) is a large-scale collaboration of 14 not-for-profit organisations who have united to amplify the voice of young people and effectively support them through education into thriving futures. The organisations in T4Y currently provide individual support to secondary school students around Australia with particular focus on the vulnerable.

T4Y will be a single point of contact providing bespoke delivery of social and emotional wellbeing programs to secondary schools across Australia. By working together, T4Y will increase the positive impact these organisations can have on young people by providing continuous and consistent support throughout the high school years 7–12.

The grant supports T4Y’s operations over the next four years allowing the collective to pilot an in-school collaboration, develop a common evaluation framework and set up the T4Y collective to be sustainable.

Overview of Program Area grants awarded