Communities Innovation Fund: Responses to Social Isolation and Loneliness

Organisation

Project title

Project details

Total grant funding (ex GST)

Mareeba Shire Council

Go after your Goals

Mareeba Shire Council will partner with the Mareeba United Football Club, agricultural partners and local farmers to promote social inclusion of Vanuatuan seasonal workers into the Tablelands community. Football is popular in Vanuatu and will provide a culturally appropriate mechanism of integrating farmers into community and tackling historical social isolation and lack of community cohesion. Aligned with the Council’s strategic vision for the region, the project aims to strengthen cultural diversity and boost the economic participation of seasonal works.

$40,700

NQ Ummah Care Ltd

Social Connectiveness

North Queensland Ummah Care (NQUC) will target elders, single parents and low literacy community members facing SIL due to language barriers and support them on their journey to gaining Australian citizenship. NQUC will conduct culturally responsive, daily social engagements, through which participants will learn relevant citizenship information in a flexible, motivational format by and amongst community members of the same age, gender and cultural group.

$50,000

The Council for LGBTI Health

You Belong

You Belong project aims to increase social belonging and help-seeking capacity amongst LGBTIQ+ refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in Southeast QLD. Through workshops, resources and programs co-designed with community, the project will support community members to better understand healthy social relationships, navigate the complexity of intersecting identities and address barriers to seeking support, with the aim of reducing social isolation and loneliness.

$44,750

Ethni Inc

Wildflower Sisters

Ethni Inc will establish a social enterprise for young CALD women to make and sell floral bouquets, providing paid employment alongside social connection opportunities that are often missed due to caring and work responsibilities. Through every ten bouquets sold, the social enterprise model will fund one of the young women to deliver a bouquet to another woman in her community experiencing loneliness or isolation, to engage in cultural connection. This may include for example, older women, women with disabilities or health issues or new mothers, and will have a focus on intergenerational connection and the revitalisation of culture through conversation. The ’Wildflower Sisters’ will also facilitate connecting their flower recipients in with community-based social groups and programs.

$49,910

You Belong Australia

Good Neighbours

You Belong Australia will engage and train 300 peer volunteers to build meaningful connections and provide practical support to 1500 CALD community members at risk of social exclusion in Toowoomba and the Gold Coast. In collaboration with other CALD organisations, local churches and schools, the program will deliver personalised, culturally sensitive assistance directly into people’s homes. From conversational English classes and driver mentor lessons to digital literacy support, the program will address immediate SIL barriers amongst migrants and refugees and foster long-term community integration and empowerment.

$50,000