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“Check in with your community”

 

**Please note: Applications closed at 5:00pm, 25 January 2021. If you have any questions regarding the Grant program or application process, please email [email protected], or call Ezra Thomas at MHCT on 0431 792 073**

Communities play an important role providing positive social activities that help build resilience at a local level and support people to feel connected and stay well. Local community organisations can facilitate activities that reduce sustained feelings of social isolation and loneliness, support people to reconnect with social services, builds skills to enable individuals to support their friends and families and to promote a sense of belonging and connection.

In late 2020, community-based not-for-profit organisations will have the opportunity to apply for Community Wellbeing Grants of up to $10,000 for activities or events. These grants seek to build social connections, promote community resilience, facilitate reconnection with local social support networks and promote positive wellbeing messages. This grant program is funded and supported by Primary Health Tasmania under the Australian Government’s primary health networks program.

Successful applications will include activities or events that are local, that increase connection to community, educate community members on how to maintain wellbeing and which encourage help seeking behaviour.

Grant applicants are required to demonstrate that they have engaged with evidence based and/or best practice resources when planning their activity or event. It is recommended that applicants review the below sources.

Full details, including the eligibility criteria, selection criteria, terms and conditions, and acquittal process are available below.

Further Information

  • Applicant is a community group, association, club or organisation with non-for-profit status (must have an ABN or be auspiced by an organisation with an ABN).
  • The planned activity or event must facilitate local community engagement and social connection with a focus on wellbeing.
  • The planned activity or event must have some relationship to positive mental health and/or alcohol and other drug wellbeing strategies and have links to mental health and/or alcohol and other drug information, resources and supports.
  • The activity or event must occur between 10 February and 30 June 2021.

Applications will be reviewed and assessed by a Selection Panel. The funding process is competitive, and your application will be rated against the following selection criteria. Please also note, your requested funding amount may not be available, and another amount may be allocated, should your Grant be successful. The selection criteria are as follows:

  • The applicant meets all necessary eligibility requirements.
  • The applicant demonstrates a willingness to explore collaboration and partnership with other organisations/agencies on the activity or event, in particular those targeting the same audience and in the same location (partner organisations/agencies will need to be listed as part of the application process)
  • The proposed activity or event must meet one of the following three requirements:
    1. Provides education to participants about protective wellbeing strategies and help seeking behaviours (this may include but is not limited to, information on self-care, mental health literacy, alcohol and other drug harm reduction, education on how to find local community or Tasmanian supports or training on how to support fellow community members).
    2. Demonstrates proactive engagement with particular segments of the population and/or people living in isolated geographical areas (i.e. culturally and linguistically diverse, Tasmanian Aboriginal people, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual and allied people (LGBTQIA+)).
    3. Demonstrates how the activity or event reaches people who are not well connected to the broader community.
  • The application demonstrates activity/event size targets and target audience.
  • The application demonstrates a clear plan to promote the activity and event.
  • The application demonstrates a clear budget breakdown with supporting comments.
  • The application demonstrates safety considerations of the activity or event (e.g. that the activity is aligned with evidence-based principles and/or that applicants have engaged with best practice resources such as the Tasmanian Communications Charter, Safely Talking Toolkit and resources from The Alcohol and Drug Foundation or the Drug Education Network).
  • This Grant funding is a one-off opportunity to be utilised for the purposes of facilitating reconnection and community wellbeing.
  • Only one Grant application per organisation will be considered up to a maximum amount of $10,000.
  • While the current COVID-19 pandemic has created restrictions on social gatherings and an element of uncertainty about the future, groups are encouraged to think innovatively about how they can engage with their communities as restrictions may change.

Eligible organisations:

  • Community and cultural groups, clubs and organisations based within Tasmanian communities – groups may represent particular geographic areas, cultural groups, ages and networks. These could include Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples or migrant groups, playgroups, groups for older people, men’s groups, sporting clubs, local community associations, service clubs, youth groups and community centres.

Ineligible Organisations:

  • Peak bodies and advocacy groups will not be eligible to apply for the grants directly but are encouraged to support local community groups and affiliated organisations in promoting and delivering activity (for example, as an auspicing individual).
  • Due to the grant being focused on non-clinical activities, primary health care providers, including commissioned organisations and public health services will not be able to apply for the grants but are encouraged to support local community groups in planning and delivering activity or event.

Example of Eligible Activities/Events:

  • Community events or workshops that promote and provide information on self-care and building resilience and protective factors.
  • Sharing information about available community resources and services and how to access them, including printing and copying information sheets and other items for dissemination
  • Engaging proactively with people who are not well connected to the broader community
  • Events facilitated through local community organisations (such as sporting clubs, community houses, men’s sheds and service clubs) that bring people together to improve social connections and friendships
  • Promotion of online self-help tools and resources, including the HeadtoHealth website
  • Local promotion of relevant and appropriate wellbeing and alcohol and other drug messaging (including the Mental Health Council of Tasmania #Checkin and Alcohol and Drug Foundation Drinking in Isolation campaign messages)
  • Increased local access to appropriate mental health, suicide prevention and alcohol and other drug training (including but not limited to SafeTalk, Mental Health First Aid, Accidental Counsellor and qualified alcohol and other drug educators through the Drug Network)

Ineligible Activities or events:

  • Activities or events that are subcontracted out to another organisation
  • Activities or events that duplicate or replace existing services provided by other organisations, including state and territory government services
  • Activities or events that require expenditure on capital items
  • Activities or events that require interstate travel/costs not associated with the funded service, any overseas travel or related expenses
  • Activities or events that require legal costs or compensation associated with employment related disputes or actions
  • Activities or events based outside of Tasmania
  • Activities or events that go beyond 30 June 2021
  • Retrospective activities or activities in progress (already commenced)
  • Research project or strategic business or organisational planning activities or events
  • Activities or events within an existing contracted arrangement by the organisation
  • Sponsorship to attend workshops or conferences
  • Activities or events that cannot be delivered safely within the appropriate COVID-19 restrictions
  • Activities or events that provide clinical mental health and alcohol and other drug  services or other clinical health services
  • Activities or events that do not reflect local community need (as demonstrated through the application process)
  • Activities or events that develop messaging that differs from the existing #checkin or Alcohol and Drug Foundation Drinking in Isolation campaign messages
  • Activities or events that promote self-help and digital health services/resources that are not included on the HeadtoHealth website unless applicant can demonstrate an evidence base for the service/resource.
  • The predominant reason for the event or activity must not be to fundraise for or promote the applicant organisation.

Following the completion of your event, as part of the funding agreement, your organisation must provide an Acquittal Report to MHCT by COB 30 July 2021.

For your Acquittal Report, you will be required to report on the achievements of your activity or event against your planned objectives and milestones, this will include feedback from participants. We encourage short evaluation survey results, photographs, newsletters, media reports and other relevant documentation to be included with your report (if photographs are included, ensure consent is sought).

We also require a financial statement as part of the Acquittal Report. MHCT acknowledges that there are sometimes changes in the cost of materials or services provided for events or activities. However, the grant must be used for the purposes outlined in the event proposal. Therefore, we ask that an activity/event budget is completed, outlining the items covered by the funding.

 

Grant Acquittal Form

Questions (and their answers) will be added here as we receive them from prospective applicants. Please check back here regularly for updated information.

 

Q. What is the total pool of funding that has been made available through the Community Wellbeing Grant Program? 

A. $250,000 exclusive of GST, applicants can apply for up to $10,000.

 

Q. Can the grant be used to purchase capital items used for the activity event, for example a guitar for a music group?

A. It is acknowledged that it may be necessary to purchase small items and equipment in order to deliver community wellbeing and engagement activities.  To support this, eligible organisations are allowed to apply no-more than 20% of their total budget to the purchase of small items and equipment and must provide details of this in their applications.  The grants assessment panel will consider the appropriateness and need for the small item and equipment in their consideration of the grant application.

 

Q. Are schools eligible to apply for a Grant? 

A. Schools that can provide evidence of their not-for-profit status are eligible to apply for a grant.

 

Q. What do you need to write in the ‘purpose’ field of the budget section?

A. The applicant needs to provide some indication of how that budget line item connects to the purpose of the activity or event (in most instances this will be very clear already, but in some cases the assessment panel may not fully understand why the applicant is requesting the funds for certain budget line item as it is difficult to comprehend how it is required for the proposed activity or event)

 

Q. Are local councils (government) eligible to apply for a grant?

A. Yes, local councils are considered an eligible organisation as long as they can provide an ABN with not-for-profit status.

 

Q. Can the grant be used for an activity or event that the applicant has hosted in the past?

A. Yes, so long as the applicant can demonstrate how grant funds for this iteration of the activity or event will be used to attract new audiences