FRRR ABC Heywire Youth Innovation grants

FRRR and our donor partners collaborate with ABC Heywire to help communities take action on the ideas generated by young Australians who attend the annual Heywire Regional Youth Summit.

Grants of up to $10,000 are available for communities across Australia to adopt, adapt and act on the ideas generated at the Heywire Summit.

FRRR first joined forces with the ABC in 2013 and the positive impact of the grants we’ve awarded so far is being felt in 160 rural and regional communities around Australia.

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Project Ideas

  • Bussin’: more accessible transport options for young people
  • MEE (Mentoring Educating Empowering): accessing quality education
  • A Place for You: improve accessibility to mental health services
  • The Bigger Picture: celebrating individual differences and fostering connections
  • Safe Sphere: relevant and comprehensive sexual education for young people
  • Youth 2 Grassroots: fostering a culture of environmental protection and stewardship

Click here to learn more.

The 2024 ABC Heywire Youth Innovation Grant Program is now open.

Applications close 29 May, 2024.

Funding announced in August 2024.

FREE Grantseeker Workshop

When: Tuesday, 9 April from 12pm – 1pm AEST
Where: Online via Zoom

Click to register now

How to apply

Please read the information on each of the three tabs below to make sure this is the right grant for your project.

If you want to explore other grant options, please go to Find Funding Now.


I have a question, who can I talk to?

Lauren Ryan
1800 170 020
info@frrr.org.au

Confirm you are eligible to apply for this grant

To make sure this is the right grant for your community, please read the grant information detailed in the Program Guidelines below carefully. Click on each headline to reveal the detail. If you need to share this information with others, you can download the guidelines below.

What are the program objectives?

The FRRR ABC Heywire Youth Innovation Grant program helps communities take action on ideas generated by young Australians on issues that matter to remote, rural and regional youth. The Heywire Project Ideas are developed annually at the Heywire Youth Summit in Canberra.

Grants of up to $10,000 are available for communities to act on these issues by either adopting or adapting the project ideas.

That might include implementing the idea as developed by the Heywire Youth or by adapting it to respond to the issue the project idea seeks to address with an initiative that meets the needs of young people in your community.

Through these grants, this program aims to:

  • Make remote, rural and regional Australia a better place to grow up for young Australians;
  • Put young people at the centre of decision making about issues affecting them within their community;
  • Strengthen young people’s connections to their community, by providing an avenue for organisations to engage well with youth.

What are the 2024 Project Ideas?

The Heywire Youth Summit provides an opportunity for youth from across Australia to collectively identify issues that have impacted them growing up in remote, rural and regional Australia, and then develop project ideas that address these issues.

The 2024 Heywire issues impacting young Australians are:

  • Bussin’: How might we create more accessible transport options for young people in regional and rural communities?
  • MEE (Mentoring Educating Empowering): How might we close the gap in accessing quality education for young people in regional, rural and remote communities?
  • A Place for You: How might we improve accessibility to mental health services in remote and regional areas of Australia?
  • The Bigger Picture: How can we empower young people in regional towns to celebrate their differences and foster connection among themselves?
  • Safe Sphere: How might we ensure that young people in regional and remote communities receive relevant and comprehensive sexual education?
  • Youth 2 Grassroots: How might we promote a stronger connection between individuals and their land by fostering a culture of environmental protection and stewardship?

Grants of up to $10,000 are available for communities to act on these issues by either adopting or adapting one of these six project ideas.

The 2024 Heywire winners came up with some innovative ideas to address these issues. If you need inspiration on how you might adapt the idea to address these issues within your community, you can apply for a Heywire grant to fund the initiative.

Learn more about the 2024 Heywire project ideas here: https://www.abc.net.au/heywire/grants/.

Gather information to support your grant application

Please read the information below to plan and prepare your project. The information below sets out what you MUST include for your project to be considered. There are plenty of helpful resources to support you along the way.

Please contact FRRR if you have any questions about the following information.

Your grant application MUST include:

Need some more help?

We have a large selection of resources on our Grant Seeker Resources Page to help you along the way.

Submit your grant application via the Grants Gateway

Please contact FRRR if you have questions about any aspect of the Grants Gateway online application form.

Helpful resources:

It is time to submit your application. If it is helpful, you can download a sample copy of the application form.

Email the Program Manager to request a fillable Word version of the application form.

Please read the instructions on how to use the Grants Gateway How-to Guide and have your questions answered with our Grants Gateway FAQs.

Before you submit your application via the online Grants Gateway, please ensure you have:

  • confirmed you are eligible to apply for this grant
  • provided clear information about your project
  • checked that you are an eligible legal entity
  • provided the financial information required
  • created a budget for the project
  • gathered supporting materials
  • spoken to an FRRR contact person where you were unsure of any requirement
  • gathered community support for the project
  • checked the information you are providing to make sure it is clear and relevant to the project

If you have significant issues accessing a stable internet connection, please contact our team to discuss an alternative way of applying:
Ph: 1800 170 020 or Email: info@frrr.org.au

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with FRRR. The process has been easy to navigate and the support from the organisation has been beyond what was expected. They have been very helpful when I have had questions and extremely flexible allowing time for acquittal and understanding when changes have been needed.
 
Through support from the FRRR ABC Heywire Youth Innovation Grants we were able to reach more than 600 young people through the Our Voice project. The Our Voice presentations have been truly magical as they have evolved through the period of this funding. The lived-experience youth presenters started very tentatively and nervously, as they found their confidence and strength in their own voices and their comfortability within presenting and connecting to the young people that they were supporting. To watch their growth personally within self and as presenters has been a beautiful success and shows the power and beauty of storytelling from lived experience.
 
The thing that we most appreciate is that these grants have been designed by and decided upon in collaboration with our youth. This makes this project very, very special!
 
 
Megan Stray, Heal.ed Tribe – Heywire Grantee 2021

Inspiration – Past projects

Explore some of the projects we’ve previously funded to see how other organisations have helped their community thrive.

Helping regional youth discover their future

When the 2021 Heywire Ideas Lab was held in Broken Hill, NSW, Far West University Centre adopted an idea generated by local high school students – to host an event for local youth that would show them career and education options within their region.

Youth at the fore of Kimba’s Fusion Festival

Our Town Kimba leveraged the Heywire program to connect with young individuals in the region following the damaging floods of January 2022. The $10,000 grant enabled them to engage mentors, educators and community members to guide the process and empower the youth to lead a project within their town.

More

Contribute to the change

 Riverland Youth Theatre used an FRRR ABC Heywire Youth Innovation Grant to develop the Contribute to the Change project idea to develop the ‘There I Am’ project to support LGBTQIA+ youth in Renmark, SA.