Safe and Diverse Communities Grants

Background

Domestic and family violence is an overt or subtle expression of a power imbalance—resulting in one person living in fear of another—and usually involves an ongoing pattern of abuse over time.

It can have serious impacts on people who experience it and may take many forms, ranging from physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, financial, monitoring and surveillance, and other types of control.

The Queensland Government is committed to:

• enabling culturally and linguistically diverse communities to create long-term cultural change within their communities to prevent DFV
• creating meaningful partnerships and engagement with people from diverse backgrounds to enable proactive steps for improving women’s safety through awareness and prevention initiatives to address DFV
• working with communities to prevent violence to ensure the voices of culturally and linguistically diverse women are heard, and to support women and their children who may require a range of targeted responses.

In 2021 the Queensland Government provided funding of $6 million over 4 years to support the prevention of DFV in multicultural communities, and $1 million of this funding was to facilitate partnerships in multicultural communities through a grant program. This $1 million was made available over 4 years, with $250,000 available each year of the grant program.

This year an enhanced grant round is occurring with additional funding available.

Target group

The grant program is for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This includes people from migrant or refugee backgrounds, as well as people who are born in Queensland who self-identify as ‘being from multicultural backgrounds’. This applies to groups and individuals who differ according to religion, language and ethnicity and whose ancestry is other than Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, Anglo Saxon or Anglo Celtic.

Funding available

$1 million was provided over 4 years to facilitate partnerships in the prevention of DFV in culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Queensland. In 2021 and 2022 the total investment was $250,000 per round.

This year an increased investment of $850,000 is available for an enhanced grant round. Under the enhanced grant round, small grants of up to $25,000 and larger grants up to $150,000 will be available for prospective applicants.

These grants will be dispersed in a tiered approach:

1. Small grants up to $25,000 to support community led projects in culturally and linguistically diverse communities to:
   • recognise, respond to and raise awareness of DFV, and
   • provide better support for victim-survivors of DFV.
2. Larger grants up to $150,000 to support a small number of larger projects in culturally and linguistically diverse communities which aim to:
   • drive cultural change in enhancing response to, prevention, awareness and recognition of, and/or support for those impacted by DFV, and
   • contribute to sustained community impact beyond the grant's expiration, which must involve the development of training programs/resources/materials tailored to address the identified priority issue/s.

We encourage innovative approaches that foster long-term positive change and empower communities to address and combat DFV effectively.

A maximum of 3 larger grants will be available to successful applicants across Queensland.

Successful funding applications

All organisations that have applied for grant funding receive written notification of the outcome of their application.

In 2022 there were 11 organisations who were successfully awarded funding through the grant program.

You can access the full lists of successful applicants for each year’s funding round:

• 2022 Safe and Diverse Communities grant program successful recipients
• 2021 Safe and Diverse Communities grant program successful recipients.

Eligibility criteria

Applicants must:

• be a not-for-profit, legal entity, or
• be a local government entity, or
• have an auspice agreement with any of the above entities.

Additionally applicants must:

• have a minimum $10 million current public liability insurance cover, and
• have no outstanding financial accountability, service delivery or other performance issues by any Queensland Government agency that would impact on the delivery of your grant activity/initiative, and
• be established in Queensland and currently operational in Queensland.

Initiatives must:

• be completed by 31 January 2025, and
• be delivered in Queensland, and
• support the purpose of this grant program.

How to apply

Grant applications closed at 5pm on Friday 15 March 2024.

We will administer the grant program through a 2-step process.

Step 1

The first step will involve your organisation completing an online application form on SmartyGrants.

Step 2

A panel—which includes culturally and linguistically diverse members across government and the community—will individually score each response to the selection criteria for eligible applications.

Applicants may be invited to meet with the panel—face-to-face or via another means preferred by the applicant—should any clarifications be required in relation to the information provided by offerors in their submissions.

All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the panel evaluation.

You can find out more about how to apply for the grants by reading the Grant information and application guidelines (PDF) (or DOCX).

SmartyGrants will automatically close at 5pm on the closing date and will not allow applications past this time. Please ensure you allow adequate time to submit your application. Applications and supporting documentation will not be accepted after this time to ensure fairness to all applicants.

More information

• How to write an effective grant proposal (PDF) (or DOCX) provides you with a step-by-step approach on how to write your grant application for the grant program.
• What is expected of an organisation if they are successful in this grants program (PDF) (or DOCX) provides you with the information you need to know regarding reporting requirements and what outcomes we are looking for.
• Frequently asked questions (PDF) (or DOCX) addresses common questions and issues, and provides you with additional information that may be helpful when considering applying for a grant.

Contacts

If after reading the guidelines you still have questions, or you require further information about the grant program, please phone 1800 177 577 or email SafeandDiverseGrantPrg@justice.qld.gov.au.

For more information about applying online, you can read the SmartyGrants—Help guide for applicants. If you need assistance with your SmartyGrants account, you can contact SmartyGrants Technical Support on (03) 9320 6888 or service@smartygrants.com.au. Support desk hours are 9am to 5pm AEST, Monday to Friday.