• 2019 Annual Review

• Highlights
• From Our Leaders
• Grants in Action
• Influencing & Enabling
• A Collective Effort

Influencing & Enabling

More than money

In addition to providing grants, FRRR also helps communities build their local capacity, and shares its knowledge and insights about the challenges and opportunities in rural communities with other institutions and the broader population.

This year, FRRR set out to achieve deeper knowledge and broader reach into the communities we support and to share what we know about life in rural, regional and remote communities with those who don’t live there.

You can read about all our influencing and enabling activities in the report, but a snapshot is below.

Capacity building in communities

FRRR visited more communities than ever before in 2018/19. Staff conducted ten regional tours, visiting every state at least once and going to more than 80 communities. We ran 41 grantseeker workshops and presentations to assist with knowledge development, strategic and project planning. 

There were also some sessions where FRRR was asked to be part of a community planning session, such as in Theodore QLD. FRRR staff shared lessons from other communities to support the community in considering how best they could work together to create a positive future for Theodore. 

Building community capacity in Theodore.	Deanne led a TTTT grantseeker workshop in Birchip.

Sharing the message far and wide

FRRR also draws on what we learn from communities and contributes to various inquiries, such as the Productivity Commission Review into Mental Health, as well as speaking at conferences, panels, events and committees. We used these opportunities to share examples of innovative local responses as well as putting the spotlight on the challenges and inequities in rural, regional and remote communities.

Emma and Bethea at the Australian Disaster Resilience Conference.	Jeanice at the National Rural Health Alliance conference.

Continuous learning

FRRR conducts regular evaluations of its grant programs to ensure that lessons learnt by community groups are collected and shared, and our knowledge of program creation, delivery and evaluation is deepened. An example of this was the Art Resides Here project, which was all about sharing lessons learnt. It was an opportunity to work with communities to explore the impact of the multitude of arts projects that FRRR has supported.

The 'Art Resides Here' project culminated in presentations at Artlands 2018, the national regional arts conference.

We acknowledge and extend our appreciation to the Dja Dja Wurrung People, the Traditional Owners of the land on which our Foundation is located in Bendigo, and to the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which our programs are assessed and delivered. We pay respect to their ancient and continuing cultures, their connections to the land, and to the Elders, past, present and emerging.