Since 1990 the Mercy Foundation has supported community initiatives that address social justice issues at the grass roots. Some fantastic outcomes have been achieved by hard working community organisations across Australia this year:
⇒ A project with KWILS (Katherine Women’s Information and Legal Service Inc) helped inform young, marginalised women in the remote areas of the Katherine region about domestic and family violence, explained what their rights are and provided them with access to resources as needed.
⇒ A small grant to Wellsprings for Women to help migrant women gain employment was the focus of the Women’s Cooking Group project. Twenty-five women were trained in food handling, food presentation and catering. Twenty women earned their food-handling certificate and have been employed for catering at community events. We congratulate Wellsprings for Women on winning a Multicultural Award for Innovation from the Victorian Multicultural Commission for the Women’s Cooking Group project.
⇒ Funding for a Play Therapy project and family support helped improve seven primary school children’s emotional well being and had positive outcomes both at home and at school.
⇒ Sisterworks in Victoria was funded to run a project that addressed the isolation of refugee women and taught them new skills. The project was very successful, with 30 women coming together to learn new craft skills, network, and open a pop-up shop to sell their designs.
⇒ A contribution to Cana’s Life Transformation project helped a total of 25 people undertake education and workplace readiness in areas that included horticulture, beekeeping, bookkeeping, forklift and motor vehicle driving.
⇒ A small grant helped the Russian Ethnic Representative Council run information sessions about the Australian welfare and legal system, legal aid and domestic violence services for women in Melbourne.
⇒ Funding towards a study area at a student accommodation service in NSW enabled 21 students to access resources to help them complete assignments and to focus on their education goals.
The Mercy Foundation’s Social Justice Small Grants program will be open in early 2020. Read more about the program here.
