GRANTS MADE

Review The Caledonia Foundation’s previous grants:

2009 | Projects suppported 01 July 2008 to 30 June 2009

COUNTRY EDUCATION FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIA | Seed funding

The Caledonia Foundation is seed funding the establishment of three new country education foundations in Australia over the next three years, as part of the national activities of the Country Education Foundation of Australia (CEFA).

Established in 1994, CEFA exists to improve the education and career prospects of young people in regional and rural Australia by providing financial assistance, encouragement and support to individual students, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, through facilitating the formation and operation of local, community-based education foundations.

With funding from The Caledonia Foundation, CEFA will support the establishment of three new education foundations in the Maranoa in QLD, West Wyalong in NSW and Lameroo in SA. These foundations will in turn provide grants to local youth who are leaving school and need assistance to make the transition into further education or their chosen vocation.

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THE SUNRISE FOUNDATION | General support

The Caledonia Foundation is supporting the work of The Sunrise Foundation, which was established in 2006 by former footballer Wayne Schwass to work with secondary-school children to stamp out the stigma of depression.

The Sunrise Foundation uses sportspeople as ‘Ambassadors’ to fulfil their mission to deliver purpose-built preventative education programs addressing depression for young people aged between 12-18 years. In addition to the Sunrise Ambassador program, the signature program of The Sunrise Foundation is HEADSMART. In partnership with Orygen Youth Health, this two-hour education program is designed to enable secondary students to recognise and seek help for depression.

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THE TOGETHER FOR HUMANITY FOUNDATION | General support

The Caledonia Foundation is supporting the work of The Together for Humanity Foundation (TFHF), which has been working in schools since 2002 to challenge racial, ethnic and religious misconceptions and stereotypes. The Together for Humanity Foundation aims to encourage young people to focus on common values across cultures and faith, thereby cultivating a more tolerant, empathetic society.

The primary mode of delivery of its work is through face-to-face workshops. Schools are visited by a team consisting of three or four role models from different faith backgrounds, typically a Christian, a Jew and a Muslim, and sometimes an Indigenous person. The members of the team work as a unit as they interact with students, encouraging lively debates that challenge thinking and assumptions about difference.

Over 40,000 Australian children have been exposed to the work of The Together for Humanity Foundation over the past six years.

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DOCUMENTARY AUSTRALIA FOUNDATION | Voices from the Cape

Through The Documentary Australia Foundation, The Caledonia Foundation is supporting completion of the production of the documentary ‘Aurukun: Voices from the Cape’ by Community Prophets. The documentary, slated for broadcast in February 2009, depicts the process and outcomes of a unique multi-media story-telling and training program delivered to indigenous children at the Aurukun CommunitySchool over a period of six weeks in 2007. The training program, delivered by David Vadiveloo and the Community Prophets team, was funded by The Telstra Foundation under their Social Innovation Grants program. The completed two-part series will be screened on ABC TV and on Teacher’s TV (UK) in early 2009. DVDs of the series with accompanying study notes will be distributed to the educational sector as a resource to educate, inform and inspire best practice for teachers working in remote and ‘at risk’ indigenous communities.

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SOCIAL VENTURES AUSTRALIA | SVA Boost! Fund

The SVA Boost! Fund, through Social Ventures Australia, is Australia’s first venture philanthropy fund, which supports high impact social ventures that have clear, accountable and measurable strategies for social return. The Fund gives the added assurance that supported “investment” ventures receive more than just funding, they also receive management, strategic and operational advice to effectively realize social goals.

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In partnership with SVA, The Caledonia Foundation is supporting the following initiatives:

BIG PICTURE COMPANY OF AUSTRALIA

The Caledonia Foundation is providing capacity building assistance for the Big Picture Company of Australia (BPCA), a US-inspired initiative which aims to influence education policy nationally and catalyse vital changes in education by generating and sustaining innovative, individualised schooling. The BPCA model is a rigorous and highly personalised approach to education, combining academic work with ‘real world’ learning in schools which are small by design. It focuses on “educating one student at a time” and places the students and their interests at the heart of the learning process. A key to this is placing students in an internship with a mentor, in the world of work and community, every week of the school term.

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STARLIGHT CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION | Fun Centres Version 2.0

Since 2003, The Caledonia Foundation has partnered with The Starlight Children’s Foundation to support the development and roll out of their Fun Centres, particularly to remote and regional hospitals. Since Fun Centres were first introduced in hospitals across Australia to brighten the lives of sick children, their central technology has become obsolete. Thus in 2009, The Caledonia Foundation has committed to investing in prototype development for the second avatar of the Fun Centres, as well as supporting the rollout of this technology to ten previously-funded areas.

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THE OASIS – Australia’s Homeless Youth initiative

In 2009, The Caledonia Foundation is continuing to support the education and outreach activities associated with THE OASIS initiative.

THE OASIS is a hard-hitting observational documentary exposing the tragedy of Australia's youth homelessness problem. Filmed over two years, it depicts the dedicated and often thankless work of the Oasis Youth Support Network, under the direction of Captain Paul Moulds, in Sydney’s Surry Hills. Over 1.1 million viewers tuned into the ABC’s screening of The Oasis on April 10, 2008.

As part of THE OASIS ‘Australia’s Homeless Youth’ initiative, The Caledonia Foundation supported an independent national inquiry into issues associated with youth homelessness (The National Youth Commission), the publication of its findings, and an education and outreach strategy for communicating the issues to key stakeholders in business, government and the education sectors. The Caledonia Foundation has also supported the donation of a copy of The Oasis DVD, accompanied by a Study Guide, to every secondary school in Australia.

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