Page 4882 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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Last week I presented eight young women with an Audrey Fagan young women’s enrichment grant. These grants provide funding of up to $2,000 for young women aged between 13 and 18 to assist them to pursue their ambitions and to have confidence to take a career pathway of their choice. One example was a 13-year-old Macgregor schoolgirl who is making 250 teddy bears to help decrease children’s anxiety when they require transportation in an ambulance. I had the pleasure of meeting Rheannan and her mother yesterday, along with her uncle, a paramedic, whom she presented with the first batch of bears. It is very encouraging to see this teenager’s compassion and selflessness and indeed her skills with a needle and thread—certainly she is a better threader than I am I can say, Ms Porter. This is exactly the sort of initiative that the ACT government is proud to support through the Audrey Fagan grants program.
The ACT government’s women’s grant program is another initiative which is helping us observe the important and necessary objective of supporting local Canberra women. I had the opportunity to launch a round of women’s grants earlier this month and these grants provide community groups and organisations with an opportunity to apply for a share of $100,000 in funding to improve the status of women and girls in Canberra. Applicants must design and implement initiatives that make life more inclusive and better for local women.
Funding for the women’s grants is split into two categories: the first is capacity building which is open to individual projects which aim to strengthen the capacity of community groups or organisations to implement and advance the identified social objectives and priorities of the women’s plan, and the second is a special projects category which is open to individual projects which contribute to research based on gender equity or projects which seek to advance public policy or service development which will implement and advance the identified objectives of the ACT women’s plan.
MS PORTER: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Minister, could you inform the Assembly of the projects and initiatives that the ACT women’s grants have assisted in the past?
MS BURCH: I again thank Ms Porter for her question. Since 2004, when the ACT women’s grants came into place, we have funded 107 projects to a total value of $600,000. This program has continued to support community organisations and groups which provide activities and programs which focus on enhancing the status of women and strengthen their capacity to provide women’s services throughout the territory.
Last year’s women’s grants program funding focused on programs which addressed the economic priorities of the ACT women’s plan. Funding in the last round of the women’s grants was allocated to a number of programs and initiatives, including leadership, economic independence, community participation, health, arts and sports. Some of these projects included $12,000 to the Women’s Centre for Health Matters to
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