Habitat for Humanity
Our partnership strengthens housing outcomes while creating real economic opportunity for women facing disadvantage.
Our Multi-Year Partnerships
HealthWISE
Our partnership is supporting HealthWISE to expand its Aboriginal Health Workers in Pharmacy model across the northwest region.
Shedding Community Workshop Inc.
Our partnership will support the Shedding Community Workshop Inc. to grow its impact by strengthening internal capacity and diversifying revenue streams.
Our project partners
Calm Cove: Safe Sensory Spaces for Regional NSW
Region: Hunter, Central Coast, Mid North Coast, New England (Tamworth) and Northern Rivers (Ballina)
Grant: $25,000
Aruma will create five ‘Quiet Retreat’ kits to provide sensory-safe spaces at community events, supporting people with sensory needs that may be related to autism, ADHD, or other sensory impairments. Over 18 months, around 13,000 people are expected to benefit from these Calm Cove spaces, which aim to reduce stress, improve social experiences, and boost community participation.
Assistance Pups
Region: Northern Rivers (Grafton)
Grant: $78,000
Assistance Dogs Australia will purchase and fit out a vehicle to help continue their “Assistance Pups” initiative, which engages people in custody to train puppies who will then go on to be assistance dogs for those living with disabilities.
BackTrack Basics: Embedding regional employment skills
Region: New England
Grant: $50,000
BackTrack will trial a place-based learning model to help disengaged youth gain regionally relevant skills and real-world job experience on its properties, including ‘The Farm’ in New England. Participants will earn licences for machinery and construction work, supporting long-term employment and breaking cycles of disadvantage.
Empowering women through coffee!
Region: Hunter
Grant: $110,000
This project centres around the establishment of a new social enterprise to build the capacity of both Carrie’s Place and their beneficiaries; primarily women and their families experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, and domestic and family violence in the Hunter region. Grant funds will support the purchase and fit-out of a coffee van and set up costs for the first 12 months of operation, enabling Carrie’s Place to provide six women with paid work experience and on-the-job hospitality training, culminating in a barista qualification.
Culture Connect Pilot: age tailored wellbeing programs
Region: Central Coast
Grant: $50,000
Coast & Country Primary Care will pilot an eight-week mental health and wellbeing program for First Nations people on the Central Coast, co-developed with Mingaletta Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Corporation. Led by an Aboriginal peer worker, the project promotes cultural connection, health literacy, and access to support in a culturally safe environment.
Friendship on a Plate
Region: Hunter
Grant: $74,000
Home-Start will run a 12-month program in Newcastle to help parents improve cooking skills and family nutrition using affordable ingredients. Led by a nutritionist, the initiative also fosters social connections, better mental health, and healthier family lifestyles.
The Sunshine Hut: A project to deliver an early-intervention children's support program in domestic violence crisis refuge
Region: Hunter
Grant: $127,000
The Sunshine Hut clinic delivers children’s support services at Jenny’s Place Crisis Shelter. With this $127,000 grant, this project will support operation of the clinic, helping over 50 children receive expert help to recover more quickly from trauma and build resilience. It aims to improve outcomes for children who have experienced domestic and family (DFV) violence by developing an innovative support program.
Family Volunteers: Integrated Kids Development Program
Region: Kempsey
Grant: $150,000
This expansion project will build on the success of its Volunteer Family Connect program in the Taree region, enabling volunteers to help vulnerable families whose children require additional support for healthy development. Upskilling volunteers to support therapeutic outcomes for children is expected to support career development with pathways provided to further studies and job opportunities in the allied health sector. This will address a severe allied health workforce shortage in the area.
Connect & evolve: Newcastle’s new mental health hub
Region: Hunter (Charlestown)
Grant: $100,000
The Lake Macquarie and Newcastle Suicide Prevention Network (LMNSPN) will pilot vital mental health services at its new, multi-agency Evolve Mental Health & Wellbeing Hub in Charlestown. The Hub offers a safe space for those in crisis to develop coping skills and seek support.
Deadly brain: Family and community brain health
Region: Central West, Mid North Coast
Grant: $200,000
Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) will partner with four Aboriginal Health Services to study brain health in First Nations communities. Using culturally appropriate yarning with 120 participants, the project will develop a “Deadly Brains model”, which will include training staff as Brain Health Champions, and running community education events.
Inclusive Futures Project
Region: Hunter (Cessnock)
Grant: $87,000
Prelude Australia will pilot a 12-month project connecting Hunter early childhood educators with health and intervention specialists to support children with diverse needs. Around 200 educators will receive practical training, aiming to reduce exclusions, ease burnout, and improve outcomes for children.
PICU Courtyard John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct
Region: Hunter
Grant: $92,000
A new Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is being developed as part of the John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct. Sleapy’s Foundation has successfully advocated for a widened project scope, which now includes a clinically equipped courtyard. Designed to mimic a tranquil and culturally appropriate natural, non-hospital environment, it will provide respite to an estimated 750 young patients plus their loved ones (including pets) from across Hunter and New England regions each year. Delivered in partnership with Multiplex, NPCF grant funds will support the fit-out stage of the project, specifically covering planter beds, integrated timber bench seating, waterproofing, landscaping, and irrigation.
Tender Funerals Community Outreach Program
Region: Mid North Coast
Grant: $70,000
Tender Funerals is an innovative social enterprise and challenger brand within the funeral industry that considers the long-term impacts that the “cost of death” has on people and communities facing financial, cultural, and social barriers to providing meaningful funerals for loved ones. Their proposed expansion will see a Project & Outreach Lead employed to build awareness and engage volunteers to deliver funeral and bereavement support services via “pop-up offices” beyond the main operational site in Wauchope. Ten volunteers will be received accredited training in Tender Funerals’ Certificate IV in Funeral Services course, providing significant community capacity building and connection, as well as compassionate and high-quality funeral services to the community. This will benefit those facing adversity or financial hardship; in addition to job readiness for volunteers, each family that utilises Tender Funerals’ services saves an average of $6,000 per funeral, reducing the financial and emotional strain of an already difficult time.
At The Table: Supporting social and mental health for men
Region: Hunter, Mid North Coast
Grant: $82,500
The Men’s Table will expand to Muswellbrook, Cessnock, and Port Macquarie, creating safe spaces for men to connect, share, and support each other. Over 12 months, the program aims to engage 48 men, helping reduce social isolation and improve mental and emotional wellbeing in regional communities.
Stories of success
Aruma
Our partnership helps create safe spaces at community events, supporting people with sensory needs that may be related to autism, ADHD, or other sensory impairments.
NicView
Up to 1,200 families rely on NICview each year, making it a vital piece of technology for families
PCYC
When it comes to organisations doing good things for our youth, the Police Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) and its GRIT program is one that’s well worth supporting.
SHINE for Kids
SHINE for Kids support children, young people and families with relatives in the criminal justice system.
Wheelchair sports NSW/ACT
Wheelchair sports NSW aims to change the lives of people living with a physical disability by participation in sport.
Chairman's Medal 2024
Derryck Klarkowski has re-homed 645,000 donated items to 24,000 children living in poverty through his charity, We Care Connect.
Read more stories
Read more stories of success, as well as our most recent grant recipients.