Office for Ageing Well has announced the recipients of its Ageing Well Community and Research Grants for 2023-2024.
Six regional councils will receive Age Friendly SA Grants totalling more than $200,000.
Uniity Social Connections program received a Positive Ageing Fellowship Grant in 2021-2022. Photo: supplied.
The City of Port Augusta will use its $35,000 grant to fund Yarning Art Classes with two Aboriginal Elder artists. The free classes at the Yarta Purtli Art Gallery will connect older community members, enabling them to socialise while learning new skills.
Five organisations will share around $190,000 in Positive Ageing Fellowship Grant funding.
Auspicious Arts Projects will invest $39,400 in creating a short film ‘Postal Service’ inspired by older residents’ stories of small acts of community service in and around Copper Coast post offices. Residents will create human-sized puppets to act out their stories on a digital film set based on old post office architecture. The project aims to create more spaces for community conversations, amplifying the voices of older people who are often less visible in film.
Positive Ageing Fellowship Grant recipients will receive coaching and mentorship from the Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) to develop and implement their project ideas and sustain their activities long-term.
Two groups of researchers from Flinders University and a research partnership between Flinders and Torrens Universities have been awarded Impact Research Grants for Ageing Well funding totalling $150,000.
Flinders University researchers partnering with Torrens University will use their $100,000 major project grant over two years to work with older migrants and refugees from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and service provider interviews, on how alternative approaches to ageing help to safeguard rights and encourage social inclusion over two years.
Grants for Seniors totalling more than $200,000 have been awarded for 40 initiatives.
A range of metropolitan and regional sports, social and service clubs has been funded including Adelaide Repertory Theatre group to buy a hearing loop system for Adelaide’s Arts Theatre, and the Semaphore and Aldinga Bay Surf Lifesaving Clubs to fund ‘Silver Salties’ Programs for the over-60s.
Several organisations have been funded for activities during South Australia’s Week of Ageing Well from 1-7 October, including Chamber Music Adelaide for five free ‘Chamber in the Community’ concerts; the Gawler Regional Natural Resource Centre for a series of gardening and sustainable living workshops; and Tea Tree Gully Gymsports for daily Fitter for Life classes for older locals.
Fifty-four of the 130 diverse applications received have been funded with 28 grants to organisations in regional areas.
Office for Ageing Well grants program initiatives are estimated to support more than 39,000 South Australians to age well – safeguarding rights, challenging ageism, and creating more age friendly communities.
For more information and the full list of Community Grants recipients, go to www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/communitygrants.