The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for the community sector who work hard to support Casey's most vulnerable residents. During this time, Council provided significant support to community organisations through its Quick Response grants program. This included a substantial level of funding distributed to community service organisations and emergency food relief providers in response to local community needs.
The COVID-19 Quick Response grants aimed to extend and strengthen this assistance for the community sector. This was done by providing grants of up to $5,000 to support COVID-19 related services, programs and initiatives.
More than $210,000 in grants were awarded in the grant round between September 2021 and February 2022. In recognition of pressing community needs, approvals were fast-tracked so that most applicants received their grant within 7 to 10 days of submitting their application.
Here are some success stories of how this funding has enabled organisations to assist Casey residents during these challenging times.
Relationships Australia Victoria
Relationships Australia Victoria representative Jackie Blake said that receiving a COVID-19 Quick Response grant from the City of Casey enabled the organisation to purchase several ipads to loan to participants of their Men's Behaviour Change Program.
"Being able to continue to participate in groups during lockdown was important. These programs were moved over to a Zoom-based model during the lockdowns," said Jackie.
"Phones were not easy to use with Zoom, and some of the men we were working with, who reside in Casey, didn't have access to the technology needed to be able to safely participate in our program. Being able to borrow iPads made it a lot easier to participate.
"Receiving this grant has really enabled these men to continue being connected and engaged with our programs, and also for us to maintain the safety of women and children who are accessing the program."
Peninsula Community Legal Centre
Jackie Galloway of the Peninsula Community Legal Centre said that the quick response grants enabled their teams to visit rooming houses in the City of Casey and support the residents with healthcare packages.
"Many of our rooming house residents have chronic health conditions and are regularly in financial hardship often unable to afford the basic necessities," said Jackie.
"With the assistance of the quick response grants, we were able to provide health packs to our residents including sheets, towels, grocery vouchers, and personal hygiene products."
Taskforce Community Agency
Erin Crockett from the Taskforce Community Agency said that thanks to the grants, Taskforce were able to upskill their staff.
"Our clients have benefited because Taskforce Community Agencies staff have the expertise in mental health first aid and are able to help our clients through these difficult COVID-19 times."
L'arte Central
Anthony Cheeseman from L'arte Central said that L'arte received $5,000 from the City of Casey through their grants fund.
"This money was really great at the time because it enabled us to give more NDIS participant hours into making and producing some chef-prepared meals," Anthony said.
"We actually added five participants into our program to specifically do these meals. We Care Community Services located in Lynbrook distributed the meals to people that they know are challenged in this time".
Mums Supporting Families In Need (MSFIN)
Donna Cartwright from MSFIN said that the funding enabled them to support families in crisis throughout the City of Casey during the pandemic.
"We were able to provide families in the City of Casey with food, clothing, toiletries, and everyday material aid-as well as Christmas presents. These families would otherwise have gone without, if we weren't able to support them."
The full range of application types for the COVID-19 Quick Response Grants included emergency relied (food, meals, vouchers, and deliveries), hygiene and care packages, mental health support and education, case work and counselling hours, health and wellbeing programs, COVID-19 and vaccination awareness programs for CALD communities, COVIDSafe practise workshops, volunteer training, resources and support, technology and equipment to support programs.
