2016 – 2017 Shortlist

RESTLESS DANCE THEATRE

Established in 1991, Restless Dance Theatre provides dance theatre opportunities for young people aged 15-26 years living with or without a disability, but predominately with intellectual disability.  To date they have produced a total of 31 major productions and 22 community workshops in their 25 years.
Restless Dance Theatre have been nominated for and won numerous awards including Outstanding Achievement in Youth or Community Dance. Other achievements include performing as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and will perform as part of the 2017 Adelaide Festival.  The company has also been involved in film production with films receiving accolades at National and International level in the Melbourne, Sydney and Brooklyn Film Festivals.
Restless Dance Theatre will collaborate with Aboriginal specific services and elders to engage and connect with Aboriginal young people to create a performance celebrating Indigenous culture, dance and disability that will be shown at a “Sharing Day”in 2018.  This event will be an important cultural ceremony with music, arts, native foods and other performances and attract people from Indigenous as well as disability communities to promote harmony and to celebrate difference.

MULTICULTURAL YOUTH SA

Multicultural  Youth  South  Australia  Inc  (MYSA)  takes  a  leadership  role  in  ensuring  that disadvantaged  children and  young  people  from  refugee  and migrant backgrounds have the opportunities and support they need to fully participate in the life of the community.Established in 1997, MYSA  has  a  reputation  for getting results with youth placed in the “too hard” basket  by  other  service  providers.  MYSA’s work with refugee children and young people with high and complex needs has resulted in the organisation becoming the service provider of choice for responding  to  complex  youth  cases. MYSA  has  many  years  of  experience  in  designing,  developing,  implementing  and  evaluating  a  wide range of youth services, programs and projects for children and youth at risk. MYSA currently services approximately 4000 children and young people per year, many of whom have high and complex needs.Census data shows that South Australia has the lowest workforce participation rates for refugee and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) youth aged 18 – 24 years relative to the rest of Australia (Hugo et al., 2013).MYSA is seeking to establish and operate an income generating and self-sustaining social enterprise. Highly  successful social  enterprises  are  operating  in  other  states,  particularly  Queensland, to  create  local employment  opportunities  for  refugees  who  face  significant  barriers  to  employment  and  who  would  otherwise  be  excluded  from  the  labour  market.The $100,000 Impact100 SA grant will be used to  establish  an  income  generating  and  self-sustaining  social  enterprise  as  a  means  for  skills  development and economic and  social participation  for unemployed refugee  youth  with high  and  complex  needs. The social  enterprise  will  involve  the  design  and  fit-out  of  a  vintage  caravan (theme: Shirley Temple –50’s diner style) which will be available for special event hire by the  public. The young people involved in the project will be paid by the social enterprise for 12 months. Leaving with transferable  skills including the “Responsible Server of Alcohol Licence” certification which will enable them to work anywhere in the hospitality industry. Young people involved in the project who are interested in starting their own business will also be invited to participate in free, small business training.
RISE ASSIST
Rise Assist is a small community support organization associated with Rise Church SA.  Formerly known as North East Care, Rise Assist has been engaged in community support in the N.E. suburbs of Adelaide for approximately twenty years.

The Rise Assist mission is to provide a Christ-centred ministry for the relief of poverty, suffering, distress, misfortune and helplessness of people found in South Australia or elsewhere regardless of sex, race, ethnic background, religion, political beliefs or marital status. Rise Assist seeks to build local community bridges of social inclusion, community integration and inter-generational support, through creative community engagement in programs and activities.

Specific target groups Include:

  • People who are poor. Rise Assist will seek to respond to genuine need of anyone who seeks assistance.
  • People who are socially disengaged. Rise Assist is seeking ways to build bridges with those who struggle to feel as though they belong.  For this project disadvantaged youth and the mature aged are a particular focus.

Rise Assist has demonstrated success in a trial shed program called “Mech Connect” in 2016, and seeks to expand this into a Community Shed program.  The $100,000 Impact100 SA grant will be used to fund the Community Shed facility comprising 4 large rooms; namely a storeroom, craft & meeting room, wood & metal, and mechanical workshops for the use of residents in Lightsview and surrounding suburbs.

With the provision of a Community Shed, Rise Assist expects to connect with up to 250 people each week through various program activities.  This will include two weekly sessions for youth in mechanics, woodwork, and metalwork.  Retirees and the unemployed will also benefit from participating in the activities twice per week. Refugee group focused programs will also be included, in addition to specific programs tailored to clientele of other local community support group.

ICE FACTOR SA
Established in 2005, The Ice Factor describes itself as “the only High School ice hockey program in Australia, where young people learn to play the coolest and fastest team game on earth!”

The Ice Factor is a life skills program that assists at risk, disengaged or disadvantaged teenagers identified by participating high schools. From one disengaged group in 2005, the program has expanded to support teenagers in 18 high schools, over 300 young people this year and over 2,000 since it began. It seeks to capture their motivation to re-engage with school and community, and to change the direction of their lives through teaching life skills and a team sport (ice hockey).

The program has only been possible because of the generosity of community sponsors who provide funds to enable each participant to obtain their own ice skates, and to enable the program to continue and expand.

The requested $100,000 Impact 100 grant will be used to expand the program to include young people with disabilities, because the benefits that have been experienced by young people at risk would also be beneficial to young people with disabilities and significantly contribute to their mental health and general well-being.

The grant funding should enable the integration of 80 young people with disabilities into the program, in addition to the 200+ young people at risk currently engaged in the program per year.

OPERATION FLINDERS FOUNDATION
Established in 1991, Operation Flinders Foundation is a South Australian based charitable organisation that runs a world leading wilderness adventure program for young offenders and young people at risk. The program takes participants between the age of 14 and 18 years on an eight day exercise in the far northern Flinders Ranges, providing an opportunity for its participants to break away from their past and grow as valued members of the community.

Operation Flinders describes its cause as “to transform young people’s lives through world leading, evidence-based remote, outback intervention programs.”

Its mission is to “provide young men and women who have been identified as being at risk, with demanding outdoor challenges and support, to help them develop their personal attitudes and values of self-esteem, motivation, team work and responsibility so they may grow as valued members of the community.”

The requested $100,000 Impact 100 grant will be used partly to fund the employment of a further Follow-Up Support Officer to work with participants post-exercise to ensure that outcomes achieved by the participants are consolidated, and to provide further support to their ongoing development.

In addition, the grant will enable Operation Flinders to partner with the Maxima Group to provide training to Peer Group Mentors to create improved long-term employment outcomes, and well developed leadership capabilities.

Peer Group Mentors are graduates of the Operation Flinders program who have returned after initial training to assist ‘first timers’ in the program. There are already 50 Peer Group Mentors for whom additional training could be transformational in helping to break the cycle of unemployment.

YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES ASSOCIATION (SA)
Established in 1997, Youth Opportunities, as the name suggests, work with young people who are disengaged or at risk of being disengaged from school, family or work. They do this through a program delivered in schools to Year 10 students called Positive Empowerment Programs.  The goal if successful in receiving the Impact 100 grant is to expand their reach to a further 100 young people over 12 months, in the South East region of South Australia (Youth Empowerment South-East Project – YES).
The programs are currently targeted to lower socio-economic areas where youth are more at risk, generally the North as well as some country areas. To date over 11000 students have completed their 10-week program which covers building confidence, goal setting and enhancing mental health. Students are also offered a mentor for one on one follow up for 2 years after the program.  The program to date has received fantastic feedback and endorsement from third parties including their education partners and students.
With the $100,000 Youth Opportunities will train Mt Gambier teachers and community members to deliver the program in schools and aim to specifically address unemployment, living in poverty, mental health and rates of suicide. The project will be measured by participants social and emotional wellbeing.  Youth Opportunities work in partnerships with schools who part fund the program.
MOSH AUSTRALIA
MOSH = Minimisation of Suicide Harm.  Their main aim is to cater for the needs of those at risk of self-harm and suicide and those bereaved through suicide and to minimise the impact of suicide through awareness, information and support. MOSH has a vision to create and Australia where suicide prevention is embraced by everyone.

There are many risk factors associated with self-harm and suicide and these are often exaggerated if the person at risk is bereaved by suicide themselves. When coupled by a lack of protective factors the risk factors can be fatal for those vulnerable members of our community.

MOSH aims to develop and promote both existing and new programs that will minimise the risk factors and maximise protective factors for those at risk of self-harm and suicide and those bereaved by suicide.

MOSH currently has 3 operating sites (Thebarton MOSH House, Mosh Op Shop in Allenby Gardens and most recently Posh MOSH Op shop in the City.  These centres provide a centre for craft and chats and work as a potential ‘disruption’ to the suicide process (suicide is rarely an on the spot decision).  MOSH wants to go Mobile!
If MOSH are the recipient of one of the $100,000 grants the money will be used to get Mobile MOSH off the ground. Helping to fund van that will be a mobile information centre and op-shop, a part time team member to head it up, recruit and manage the Mobile MOSH volunteers and manage the program to ensure its success and to help make the mobile MOSH work with BBQ, Tables, Messaging Materials and so on.
Suicide rates are at a 10 year high, with a reported 25% increase since 2011.  Mobile MOSH will provide a gateway to the people who are not reaching the other centres and provide support and bereavement services.  Face to face service is the point of difference with MOSH and they believe that door to door is the next step to reducing suicide impact.
ACT NOW THEATRE

ActNow is a South Australian theatre company, founded by a group of high school students in 2007, that tailors socially conscious performance projects.  They work with professional artists to engage diverse communities in conversations around challenging, contemporary issues.  Their work is innovative, informed, inspiring, and often confronting but never conventional.

ActNow have received a Governor’s Award for Multiculturalism.  Other interactive projects highlights include Expect respect!, a performance about legal implications of rape and sexual assault, Speak Out, a performance combatting homophobia in high schools and Dad and Kids, a project with Carclew to engage fathers and their children to develop social connections through ‘real world games’.
If Actnow were to win the $100,000 grant it would go towards funding a project called Generation of Change.  This will be an interactive anti-racism resource for people aged between 12-18 which is developed in partnership with Reconciliation SA.  It is aimed to inspire, empower and support young people to prevent racism in their own communities.  The project will not only be for young people but will be run with and by young people.
An Impact100 SA Grant would enable:
– development of anti-racism classroom resources linked to curriculum
– doubling (to 75%) of the delivery of Schools Congress across the state by 2018
– supporting artists involved in the Schools Congress to do a Cultural Heroes tour to schools, performing at school assemblies and student events.
– employ a program manager to build ongoing relationships with schools, community groups and stakeholders to transition to a self sustaining program in 2019
An Impact100 SA $100,000 grant will bring Generations of Change to its full potential, moving from an intermittent response, to becoming a statewide strategy that engages young people with multiple resources and activities.
SOLDIER ON AUSTRALIA
BACKPACKS 4 SA KIDS
 
Backpacks was established in 2013 when they produced 564 backpacks for children in need.  Backpacks provides children and young adults that are placed in emergency accommodation with a backpack of essential items including: clothing, toiletries, comfort items, educational toys, etc that are age and gender specific. The packs are aimed at alleviating the stress of an already stressful situation for youths.  They are contacted by many services such as Families SA, Domestic violence shelters, foster parents, refugee organizations, etc.

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