Ballarat Foundation community grants program to provide assistance across city

The Ballarat Foundation's 2023 Community Grants Program spread the money across 17 different bodies with the aim of supporting all parts of the community.

As part of the program, The Courier Charity Fund awarded grants to education charity Ardoch, the Big Brothers Big Sisters Ballarat mentoring program, and Uniting VicTas' Reid's Cooking & Food Security Program.

Uniting VicTas received $8,823.50 for the initiative, and the organisation's Angelina Perovic said without such grants they wouldn't be able to run the program.

"Our mission is to provide people with some purpose, connection and belonging within Reid's and within the community," she said.

"And this funding will just go a massive way for us to be able to set up and implement something that can hopefully provide that."

Reid's Guest House provides up to 60 nights of crisis accommodation for people facing homelessness and mental health issues, and the cooking and food security program is a way to provide people with additional living skills while staying there.

Ms Perovic described the program - which is the only one of its kind in Ballarat - as "very unique."

"It's a very needed service given our housing and homelessness situation at the moment," she said.

"It's our mission to make the experience for our consumers as purposeful and as safe and as meaningful as possible, and that obviously means developing life and living skills and all that sort of thing."

Another organisation to benefit from the grants was Hand in Hand Ballarat, which received $5000 in funding for its Open Parachute program.

Founder Leah Ashton said it would help them provide mental health support for students from prep to year 12.

Ms Ashton said youth mental health had become a "very serious" issue across the entire state since COVID-19 lockdowns.

"We've been proactive, not reactive - we need to get on top of it [youth mental health], and help our young ones," she said,

"It's [the Open Parachute program] a very proactive program, so it gives [children] the tools to help deal with life."

Ms Ashton said the Ballarat community had been very generous in donating money to make the program a possibility, and the additional $5000 would go a long way.

"It costs $30 per year, per child to put someone through the program, so that's a lot of kids helped," she said.

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In a statement, Ballarat Foundation chair Wayne Weaire said the organisation wouldn't be able to provide the grants without help from the Ballarat community.

"We extend our thanks to everyone who has given to allow us to support these great causes, your contributions create real impact," he said.

"We know that community organisations and projects are currently requiring more support than ever as demand for their services continues to grow."

General community impact grant winners:

Wendouree-Delacombe Sub Fund grant winners:

The Courier Charity Fund grant winners:

The Peter Amor Sports Participation grant winners:

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