2020 GRANT WINNERS & FINALISTS VIDEOS
SIGNATURE GRANT WINNER 2020
Margaret Tucker Hostel for Girls
MTHG was the winner of MWF’s $80,000 Signature Grant in 2020. Their initiative, titled the Young Smart and Deadly Peer Education Program, is a pilot aiming to educate, train and empower young Aboriginal women and mothers aged 14-25 years old who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and/or with histories of family or community violence. Project delivery will focus on mental health, wellbeing, education and literacy and address issues such as fragile self-worth that can often lead to self-harm, overdoses and other risk-taking behaviours, including suicide ideation.
SIGNATURE GRANT FINALISTS 2020
Birth for HumanKind
B4HK was one of three finalists for MWF’s $80,000 Signature Grant in 2020. Their proposed project – titled Safer Beginnings: Supporting positive birth and early parenting experiences for pregnant women experiencing homelessness or family violence – aimed to increase the confidence and preparedness for pregnancy, birth, and early parenting for 60 women experiencing homelessness and/or family violence. In collaboration with public maternity hospitals and homelessness and family violence services, support will be delivered by Doulas—Birth for Humankind’s specialist volunteer birth support workers— with training in trauma-informed care and family violence contexts
Domestic Violence Victoria
DV Vic was one of three finalists for MWF’s $80,000 Signature Grant in 2020. Their proposed project, titled Experts by Experience: Developing a Business Case and Implementation Plan for an Independent Industry Body for Victim-Survivor Advocates, aims to develop a business case to improve services and service delivery to victim survivors of family violence. Co-designed in partnership with victim-survivor advocates, the project will explore a social enterprise model delivering fee-for-service consulting and training services, serving as a centralised access point for victim-survivor advocacy for non-government organisations, government and corporate stakeholders.
NURTURING GRANT WINNER 2020
Housing for the Aged Action Group
HAAG won MWF’s $35,000 Nurturing Grant in 2020. Their project, titled Preventing Older Women’s Homelessness – Peer Education Program, aims to address the rise in homelessness of women aged 55+ by providing community education delivered by people with a lived experience of homelessness, to reduce stigma and raise awareness of the factors that place older women at risk of homelessness. Around fifty per cent of project participants are expected to be from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
NURTURING GRANT FINALISTS 2020
Self Help Addiction Resource Centre
SHARC was one of three finalists for MWF’s $35,000 Nurturing Grant in 2020. Their proposed project, titled Understanding and Support Women’s Recovery & Housing Program (US), assists older, vulnerable women to achieve and maintain recovery from severe drug and alcohol addiction by providing peer-based support in a safe, supportive, substance-free share-house. The US Women’s Recovery and Housing program enables the women to focus on their recovery plan, achieve stability and plan for the future. Successful exit from the program will see the women engaged with employment or training and re-engaged with family and community.
Family Access Network
FAN was one of three finalists for MWF’s $35,000 Nurturing Grant in 2020. Their proposed project, titled Building Better Futures, aims to address the needs of young women aged 15-25 years old who are pregnant or parenting accompanying children, and who are experiencing or have histories of homelessness and family violence. The project seeks to empower young women by building on their capacity to support themselves and to build their knowledge and capacity for healthy relationships, child development, planning and leaving family violence situations.
Melbourne Women’s Fund is a Charitable Fund Account of Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation