The Victorian Government is delivering a grants program for community-led and community-specific organisations from diverse communities to support the mental health and wellbeing of multicultural and multifaith communities, LGBTIQ+ communities and people with disability.
Community-led includes organisations and groups led by diverse communities that provide a range of formal programs and supports to people from their communities and have the capacity to deliver mental health and wellbeing supports.
Community-specific includes organisations that provide support with a specific focus on a diverse community or communities. They will often be shaped, led or staffed by people from that community, and have strong community connections and trust. They must also be able to deliver mental health and wellbeing supports.
The Diverse Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Grants Program (grants program) in 2023-2025 has 3 goals:
- Enable the community-led sector to maintain its important role in supporting mental health and wellbeing
- Increase engagement of the community-led sector in current mental health and wellbeing reforms and system redesign
- Build new evidence and knowledge about diverse communities’ mental health and wellbeing needs and the best practice approaches used by the community led sector to meet those needs.
Grantees will be required to join the Community of Practice led by the Department of Health. Towards the end of the first year of project delivery, grantees will participate in a codesign process with the Department of Health (DH) to shape and plan project activities for year 2.
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Grants open 9am
19 September
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Briefing session registration
19 to 27 September
The Department of Health will be hosting briefing sessions to assist interested organisations to commence their applications. -
Briefing session
02 October
Online registrations are available. -
Briefing session
05 October
Online registrations are available. -
Final questions close 5pm
25 October
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Grants close 3pm
01 November
Guidelines
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This Grants Program is for community-led and community-specific organisations, particularly those serving multicultural and multifaith communities, LGBTIQ+ communities, and people with disability.
Organisations must have:
- a current Australian Business Number (ABN)
- an Australian bank account that corresponds to your ABN
- insurance that meets the requirements of a Department of Health service agreement
Your organisation must be one of the following entity types*:
- Incorporated associations registered under Consumer Affairs Victoria – these commonly have ‘Association’, ‘Incorporated’ or ‘Inc.’ in their legal name
- Incorporated cooperatives registered under Consumer Affairs Victoria – these commonly have ‘Cooperative’ in their legal name
- A not-for-profit entity registered under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) or the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 (Vic)
- A social enterprise incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001
- A Local Government Authority, but only in support of another organisation.
* If your organisation does not meet the eligibility requirements, you are encouraged to partner with an eligible organisation.
Auspice organisations are permitted to apply.
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Apply for grants between $80,000 and $240,000 for two years for community-led and community-specific organisation’s ideas and solutions that support the health and wellbeing of multicultural and multifaith communities, LGBTIQ+ communities, and people with disability in Victoria.
You will deliver your projects between January 2024 and December 2025 (two years) in one of the four ‘streams’ described in the Diverse Communities Grants Program Guidelines.
Diverse communities grants program guidelinesThe funding will be allocated to successful grantees for the 2-year period. However, second year funding is dependent on grantees meeting the project and reporting requirements in Year 1.
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All applicants must read and ensure they can comply with the Diverse Communities Grants Program Guidelines prior to applying.
Diverse communities grants program guidelinesTo complete your application, you will need to:
- register with the funding application
- have your organisation’s primary contact and ABN details
- complete the online eligibility check
- upload supporting documentation required (e.g. current insurance certificate)
Please note that if the Department of Health currently funds your organisation, other relevant information may be obtained from your current Service Agreement.
Applications must be submitted by 3:00pm Wednesday 1 November 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Application assistance
If you need to complete the application in a different format to the online template, please email mhwd.diversity@health.vic.gov.au and we will accommodate you.
Help for people with hearing and or speech difficulties can call the National Relay Service (NRS) on 1800 555 660 or see the NRS website. This is a free service.
Briefing sessions
The Department of Health will be hosting briefing sessions to assist interested organisations to commence their applications.
Sessions will be held at the following dates and time
- Monday 2 October, 1:00pm to 5:00pm
- Thursday 5 October, 1:00pm to 5:00pm
Online registrations Online can be made via Eventbrite. Registration is open until 5pm Wednesday 27 September 2023.
Reviewed 19 September 2023