Fifteen community programs and initiatives across central, western, and northern NSW will be brought to life following the presentation of funding grants at Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation’s grant giving ceremony held in Newcastle late last month.

This round of grant funding totaled almost $800,000 and was the first grant giving ceremony for 2018. The grants presented brought the total amount donated to the community by the Charitable Foundation to more than $18million.

From the grants presented in May, more than $375,000 went directly towards improving community health and wellbeing; $170,000 to facilitate projects targeted at improving the lives of disadvantaged and at-risk youth; and more than $240,000 towards supporting the social wellbeing of marginalised and isolated members of the community.

Charitable Foundation Chair, Phil Neat said the quality of candidates and applications in this round was incredibly high and selecting the final recipients was challenging.

“We were incredibly impressed with the projects that were presented to us for consideration,” Phil said.

“We provided funding to four new partners and committed to working on eleven new projects with partners we’ve previously supported.

“It’s important that we’re able to support the programs and initiatives of new partners, as well as support those partners we’ve successfully worked with in the past who are now applying for support for new programs and initiatives. This is evidence that the support provided by the foundation has a real and positive impact in our communities.”

Each project that received a funding grant will commence in the coming months and all projects are scheduled to be completed within two years. This means that the community will begin to reap the benefits of the funded initiatives and projects by early next year.

“The foundation provides financial support to projects and initiatives that address community disadvantage in regional NSW,” Phil said.

“The grants presented bring the total amount we’ve donated to the community to more than $18 million since 2003. In this time, we’ve supported tens-of-thousands of people throughout Newcastle Permanent’s regional NSW footprint.

“The Foundation Board is keen to work with these charitable community groups to see their initiatives and projects come to fruition in the next 24 months.”

IMAGE | Recipients of Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation’s grants in May.