Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation has provided funding grants of $773,000 to local charities across the central, western and northern NSW to support a range of community initiatives and projects.

The grants were designed to directly improve the lives of those in the community to address disadvantage, marginalisation and isolation across the areas of health, youth and social wellbeing.

A total of $170,000 will facilitate projects targeted at improving the lives of disadvantaged and at-risk youth; more than $400,000 will support projects aimed at improving the social wellbeing of marginalised and isolated members of the community; and $200,000 will go directly towards improving community health and wellbeing.

Amongst recipients, The University of Newcastle out(fit) design truck received $123,000 of the total funding, KIDS Foundation SeeMore Safety Program received $98,000, Central West Housing Plus Orange Crisis Centre Playground received $77,926 and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Magic Carpets – Technology for Therapy received $71,000.

Celebrating its 15th year, the charitable foundation was established as a gift to the community by the Newcastle Permanent on its 100th anniversary. The value of grants in 2018 has now grown to more than $1.56million and the total contributed has reached more than $19.1 million, with more than 448 community initiatives supported.

Foundation Chair, Phil Neat said every funding round receives high-quality applications from worthy organisations and projects.

“Selecting the final recipients is always a challenging yet satisfying responsibility for the charitable foundation Board, however the innovation presented by the applications from this round’s grant receivers is clearly recognised,” Phil said.

“We have provided funding to six new partners and seven new projects put forward by charitable organisations we’ve previously supported. It’s important to the community that we support programs and initiatives of new partners, as well as support those we’ve successfully partnered with before and who are now applying for support for new projects and initiatives.”

Each community project will begin within 12 months with the aim of been fully completed by the close of 2021.

This ensures that communities benefit from access to these projects in a timely, efficient and effective way without delay.

IMAGE | Recipients of Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation’s funding from a pool of $773,000.