KEEPING KIDS CONNECTED

HOW HOMEWORK CLUBS MET THE COVID-19 CHALLENGE

^{Homework Clubs are after-school programs that promote learning and social connections for kids aged 6 to 18.}

An initiative from the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY), Homework Clubs provide children with a space for learning and building social connections.

Today, the program is made up of more than 350 Homework Clubs across Victoria catering to 6,000 students weekly.

Over the past five years, our giving community has distributed over $1.1 million to the program – funding which has been facilitated by the Homework Clubs Partnership Fund.

“Our vision overall is to really empower young people from multicultural and refugee backgrounds to be able to fully participate in life, education and society,” says Emily Wraight, Education Program Officer at CMY.

“There’s a real shared understanding of the value of these programs across ACF and CMY,” Emily says. “It’s a very genuine partnership, and it’s reassuring that we’ve got the same reasons for driving it and making it sustainable, which I think has been a really key factor in the success.

“When Covid-19 hit, our coordinators had to do a huge amount of learning very quickly about what to do and how to do it. We definitely noticed the digital divide. We heard from schools as well about large families from migrant and refugee backgrounds, with six or seven kids all sharing one device.

“Families were struggling for a number of reasons – lack of access to technology, low levels of literacy which means they can’t help kids with schoolwork, communicating with schools – and Homework Clubs have been a crucial form of support for them.”

#OURDEMOCRACY

A NEW ALLIANCE CAMPAIGN TO STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY

^{Members of the Hands Off Our Charities Alliance, another campaign led by the Australian Democracy Network, meet at Parliament House.} 

A new alliance campaign involving over 30 nonprofits, including five ACF Impact Fund partners, is facilitating collective action for a stronger democracy.

In March 2020, as Australia grappled with its first Covid-19 outbreak and the underlying inequalities it brought to the fore, a new project working for a fairer democracy was born: the Australian Democracy Network (ADN).

A joint project from the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Human Rights Law Centre and the Australian Council of Social Service, ADN’s mission is to bring together civil society organisations and enhance communication and connectedness across the social change sector for a thriving democracy.

In early 2021, Australian Communities Foundation provided funding for ADN to hire a Campaigns Director to lead four campaigns, including #OurDemocracy – an alliance advocating for stronger laws that regulate political donations and lobbying to reduce the impact of corporate capture.

“This new alliance brings together a powerful group of allies, working in different areas but with a shared vision of tipping the scales back in favour of people and planet,” says Margaret Quixley from the Alliance for Gambling Reform, one of the participating organisations.

Since launching, the campaign has generated significant awareness of the issue of corporate capture, largely through a partnership with the Big Deal documentary – an ACF Impact Fund partner.

“It’s been an incredible opportunity for us to bring new people into our movement,” says Saffron Zomer, Executive Director, ADN.

“The 24 hours after the documentary aired on the ABC saw 2,500 contacts join our list. This is an incredible start to our campaign.” 

NO JUSTICE WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY

APRYL DAY AND THE FIGHT TO END BLACK DEATHS IN CUSTODY

^{Aunty Tanya Day’s family march to raise awareness of Black deaths in custody. Credit: Charandev Singh.} 

Establishing a foundation to support positive change is generally a cause for celebration, but Apryl Day wishes she’d never had to establish the Dhadjowa Foundation.

“If our people weren’t dying in police custody, there’d be no need for it.”

Apryl’s mother, Aunty Tanya Day, was arrested for public drunkenness in December 2017, after falling asleep on a train in Victoria. While in police custody, she fell and hit her head and was left fatally injured on the cell floor for three hours. She died of brain injuries 17 days later.

The twin goals of the Dhadjowa Foundation are to provide a safe space for families who have lost loved ones in custody and to support their fight for justice.

“Every day our people wake up fearing one of our loved ones will die in custody and that there will never be accountability or justice,” says Apryl. “We can’t keep up this fight without support and we cannot accept government funding when government is part of the problem.”

In 2020, the ACF Impact Fund began raising funds for the Dhadjowa Foundation as its Supporting Indigenous Self-Determination partner for the 2020 Reimagining Australia grant round.

As of late 2021, the Impact Fund has helped broker over $345,000 for Dhadjowa to get set up and start providing a coordinated approach to assisting families whose loved ones have died in custody.

With the support of philanthropy and public donations, the Dhadjowa Foundation is, and always will be, fiercely independent and proudly grassroots. 

COUNTRY NEEDS PEOPLE

KEEPING ONE ANOTHER HEALTHY

“Country needs people, and people need country,” says Patrick O’Leary, Executive Director at Country Needs People (CNP). “The two are inextricably linked together to keep one another healthy.”

First supported by the ACF Impact Fund in 2017, CNP partners with over 40 Indigenous land and sea management organisations to support on-Country work protecting nature and benefiting communities. 

“To manage land well and to protect biodiversity and nature, we need the people who have managed this continent for over 60,000 years,” says Patrick. 

While Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) were introduced nearly 25 years ago, the lack of a coherent policy or funding framework meant communities long struggled to secure enough long-term funding to support land and sea management. 

Over the past five years, CNP has worked with partners to help change the story. By building cross-partisan support to maintain and increase funding for Indigenous land and sea management, CNP helped secure: 

• a commitment of $746 million in 2020 to support over 80 community-led Indigenous ranger groups between 2021 and 2028. 
• a $12 million commitment from the Northern Territory Government to extend the Aboriginal Ranger Grants program. 
• a doubling of the number of Indigenous ranger jobs funded through Queensland’s Indigenous land and Sea Ranger Program. 
• an increase of $50 million for Western Australia’s Aboriginal Ranger Program. 
• $11 million for 9 new marine Indigenous protected areas. 

CNP continues to make the case that demonstrates a clear benefit to Indigenous communities and wellbeing from working on country. 

“Traditional land contemporary land management practices combined reinforce communities’ connection to land and culture, and provide a source of employment and wellbeing,” says Patrick. 

The CNP model is now being adapted internationally with the Land Needs Guardians movement in Canada seeking to achieve the same recognition of the benefits of traditional land management for both country and people. 

10 YEARS OF SUPPORTING AUSTRALIAN BIOGRAPHERS

HAZEL ROWLEY LITERARY FELLOWSHIP

Hazel Rowley was one of the world’s leading biographers when she passed away in 2011. 

“When Hazel died unexpectedly, we decided straight away that we should do something significant to remember her,” explains her sister, Della Rowley. 

“We wanted her legacy to mean something, and so we established the Fellowship to support Australian writers working on biography projects.” 

In 2021, the Fellowship celebrated its 10th anniversary with Sydney-based writer Mandy Sayer becoming the latest recipient of the Fellowship’s annual award. 

“Over the years, our Fellows have used the money to help them progress biographies on a variety of subjects, including writers, political activists, ethnologists, journalists, independent women and memoir,” says Della.

Following Hazel’s death, family, friends and acquaintances generously and quickly donated money that enabled the Fellowship Committee – Della, Lynn Buchanan, Irene Tomaszewski, and John Murphy – to open a Named Fund for the Fellowship at ACF. 

“This gave us tax-deductibility and meant that ACF would invest and manage the money for us,” explains Della. “It freed us up to concentrate on doing the core work of the Fellowship and ACF has done a magnificent job.” 

Since 2011, the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship has given over $150,000 to support Australian writers of biography. 

“We love giving money away to worthy writers! Hazel would have loved it too; one of her big enjoyments in life was conversations and the connections they create – and we’ve certainly continued that.”