ANZ provides $300,000 in Seeds of Renewal grants to regional communities
ANZ and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) today announced the recipients of $300,000 in grants made through the Seeds of Renewal program.
Funded by ANZ and independently administered by FRRR, Seeds of Renewal is providing grants of up to $15,000 to 42 not-for-profit organisations in regional and rural Australia. The grants will help recipients undertake projects that create education and employment opportunities, build financial capability, bridge social and economic gaps or support disaster recovery or preparedness, all of which are aligned with ANZ’s corporate responsibility framework.
FRRR Chief Executive Officer, Sylvia Admans said: “Each year we get hundreds of grant applications and while we can’t support them all, it is wonderful to be able to help 42 local organisations develop solutions to local issues across regional and rural Australia.”
ANZ Acting General Manager Regional Commercial Banking, Tony Maughan said: “With more than a third of ANZ’s branches in rural and regional areas, we are pleased to be able to support these communities and help them work towards a more sustainable future. Seeds of Renewal is one way that we can contribute to our regional communities, where so many of our customers and staff live and work.”
The successful grants projects for 2010 include:
- Wauchope Neighbourhood Centre, Wauchope, NSW – Equip disadvantaged children with school supplies, clothes, uniforms and books
- Longreach School of Distance Education, Longreach, Qld – Createe materials for isolated parents enabling them to provide pre-prep literacy and numeracy education to their children
- Ang Gnarra Growers Association, Mareeba, Qld – Establish a community garden to supply the Laura Aboriginal community with quality fruit and vegetables
- State Emergency Service Murgon Support Group, Murgon, Qld – Support the reconstruction of a building to house the local State Emergency Services unit
- Oakey State School Parents & Citizens Association, Oakey, Qld – Implement a learning assessment tool which provides real-time feedback to teachers to help them better address the literacy and numeracy issues facing students
- Tumby Bay Area School SCION Skills Centre, Tumby Bay, SA - Build a heritage garden to provide socio-economically disadvantaged people with fresh vegetables for sale and gifts
- Deloraine House Inc, Deloraine, Tas – Build a new, wheelchair friendly playground in the business and tourist centre
- Beechworth Community Support, Beechworth, Vic – Develop training for unemployed people to obtain a Certificate II in Retail through work at the Community Centre’s Op Shop
- Small Business Centre – Eastern Wheatbelt, Corrigin, WA – Promote an enterprise culture in the community, which is facing the worst drought in living memory.
Seeds of Renewal is in its eighth year and has provided more than $2.6 million to 572 small community projects.
For more information about the ANZ Seeds of Renewal grants, visit www.frrr.org.au, or to find out more about ANZ’s approach to corporate responsibility visit www.anz.com/cr.