COVID Regional Community Support Program
This grant program supported the work of locally-based groups in remote, rural and regional NSW that played a critical role in assisting their communities to navigate the impacts of COVID.
Program objective
In January 2022, the NSW Reconstruction Authority, formerly Resilience NSW, appointed the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) to administer two one-off grant funding streams:
- Reimbursement funding contributions to entities that had incurred expenses in delivering food and personal care hampers to rural, regional and remote individuals and families affected by lockdowns.
- Capacity building grants to community groups that provide services to affected communities for projects that aimed to build local resilience to mitigate future pandemic events.
FRRR is a not-for-profit organisation specialised in funding and capacity building support at the hyper-local level to rural, regional and remote communities.
Under the funding agreement, the FRRR Board authorised individual grant funding allocations that had undergone robust assessment by FRRR officers and had been endorsed by the Authority’s Executive.
The funding term was to December 2023, approved by the former NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW.
More information about the program can be found on the FRRR website.
Funding recipients
Stream 1 – Reimbursement
Recipient | Location | Approved Funding |
Agape Outreach Inc | Tweed Heads | $1,681 |
Albury Wodonga Regional Foodshare | Albury | $13,500 |
Allambi Care Limited | Lake Macquarie | $7,000 |
Armidale / Uralla Meals on Wheels Incorporated | Armidale | $3,183 |
Ballina Hot Meal Centre Incorporated | Ballina | $5,024 |
Belong Blue Mountains Incorporated | Blue Mountains | $10,500 |
Camden Haven Community at 3 | Lakewood | $1,125 |
CatholicCare Social Services Hunter-Manning | Mayfield | $1,977 |
Christian Outreach Centre | Kempsey | $1,350 |
Community Resources Limited | Wollongong | $3,363 |
Coonamble Neighbourhood Centre | Coonamble | $10,813 |
Food for Life Community Care Incorporated | Shoalhaven | $13,500 |
Galambila Aboriginal Corporation | Nambucca Heads | $21,000 |
Gloucester Worimi First Peoples Aboriginal Corporation | Gloucester | $950 |
Gunnedah Meals on Wheels Association | Gunnedah | $5,513 |
Indigenous Futures Foundation Ltd | Tweed Heads | $21,000 |
Ivanhoe Central School | Ivanhoe | $4,270 |
Katungul Aboriginal Corporation Regional Health And Community Services | Batehaven | $21,000 |
Kempsey Neighbourhood Centre Inc | Kempsey | $4,500 |
Leeton Community Care Development Inc | Leeton | $13,500 |
Lions Club of Raymond Terrace Inc. | Raymond Terrace | $1,420 |
Livefree Project Incorporated | Newcastle | $13,500 |
Miyay Birray Youth Service Inc | Moree | $12,842 |
Moree Sports Health Arts and Education Academy Aboriginal Corporation | Moree | $4,005 |
Orana Support Service Incorporated | Dubbo | $21,000 |
Oxley Community Transport Service Inc | West Tamworth | $4,500 |
Queer Family Inc | Mullumbimby | $2,250 |
Rapid Relief Team (RRT) Ltd | Maitland | $21,000 |
Salt Care | Ulladulla | $20,460 |
Sapphire Community Projects Incorporated | Bega | $4,703 |
Seventh-Day Adventist Church - South New South Wales Conference | Bathurst | $5,600 |
The Heartland Foundation Limited | Port Macquarie | $11,250 |
The Mend & Make Do Crew Incorporated | South Grafton | $6,750 |
Uralla Neighbourhood Day Care Centre 1 | Walcha | $4,860 |
Weilwan local Aboriginal Land Council | Gulargambone | $1,111 |
Total | $300,000 | |
Stream 2 – Capacity building grants
Recipient | Project Name | Location | Approved Funding |
Agape Outreach Inc | Upskill Disaster Support & Resilience Project | Tweed Heads | $36,600 |
Albury Wodonga Regional Foodshare | Community Pantry | Albury | $25,000 |
Armidale Care for Seniors Inc | Installation of Solar Panels and Implement a Senior's Wellness Activity | Armidale | $35,280 |
Bega Valley Shire Business Forum | Growing Volunteer Participation in Local Business Chambers | Bega | $50,000 |
Boys To The Bush Ltd | Boys to the Bush (BttB) Young Up and Coming | Young | $49,970 |
Carevan Wagga Incorporated | Carevan Continues to Care | Wagga Wagga | $3,363 |
Carries Place Domestic Violence and Homelessness Services Incorporated | Establishing client centric spaces within a Community Hub to support the provision of domestic violence and homelessness services in the Hunter community. | Maitland | $23,188 |
Community College-Northern Inland Incorporated | Human Resources Project | Barraba | $30,000 |
Coonamble Cancer Survival Fund Inc | Governance Training | Coonamble | $4,095 |
Emmanuel Care Centre Inc | Business Continuation | Dubbo | $26,508 |
Forster Neighbourhood Centre Inc | Futureproofing Forster/Tuncurry | Forster-Tuncurry | $50,000 |
Gundagai Neighbourhood Centre Inc | Fridays for Friendship | Gundagai | $42,766 |
Gunnedah Meals on Wheels Association | Our Elderly are Resilient and deserved to be looked after | Gunnedah | $8,150 |
Home-Start National Inc. | Newcastle/Lake Macquarie Volunteer Resilience Project | Lake Macquarie | $20,546 |
Kempsey Neighbourhood Centre Inc | Connecting Community | Kempsey | $43,546 |
LeaderLife Limited | LeaderLife with Syntropics: Let's Grow | Dubbo | $50,000 |
Liberty Domestic and Family Violence Specialist Services Incorporated | Liberty Domestic and Family Violence Wellbeing Space | Port Macquarie | $50,000 |
Louisa Johnston Centre Inc | Bonalbo Stay Connected with a New Computer Hub | Bonalbo | $40,648 |
Manning Support Services Incorporated | Keeping Families Connected | Taree | $12,581 |
Queer Family Inc | Queer Family Recovery Officer | Mullumbimby | $49,700 |
Rural Financial Counselling Service, NSW - Southern Region Limited | Building Counsellor & Business Coach Capacity | Wagga Wagga | $50,000 |
Singleton Family Support Scheme | Singleton Family Support Scheme Incorporated | Singleton | $49,500 |
Support for New Mums | Attracting, training and retaining volunteers. | Murwillumbah | $10,204 |
Sustainable Agriculture and Gardening Eurobodalla | SAGE NSW Inc - Building Capacity and Resilience Project | Moruya | $50,000 |
Third Sector Australia Limited | The Meeting Place |
| $15,950 |
We Help Ourselves | WHOS Hunter - Day Program Fitout | Newcastle | $35,670 |
Wyee Community Hub Incorporated | Building Resilience after COVID at Wyee | Wyee | $49,240 |
Total | $912,505 | ||
Program evaluation
The Authority procured the services of For-Purpose Evaluations Pty Ltd to undertake a program-level evaluation.
The purpose of the evaluation was to:
- Identify the outcomes of the Capacity building stream for community resilience in regional NSW.
- Identify key findings to support the design and delivery of similar future programs, including considerations around; program design, implementation, the auspice model, grantee experience and the partnerships developed.
Outcomes are grouped into the four outcome domains which align with the objectives of the program:
- Staff & Volunteer Wellbeing
- Quality of Services
- Organisational Sustainability
- Strengthening Community
Read the COVID Regional Community Support Program evaluation report (PDF 2.31MB) and executive summary (PDF 902.27KB).
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Support and contact
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