Recent News

Sixteen young people with a disability have been given the opportunity to present their own radio program as part of the Youth Media Diversity Partnerships Program at SYN Media. SYN is a media organisation that offers radio, TV and digital media opportunities in Melbourne, and it strives to provide inclusive media platforms that are open to all young people. For young people with a disability the media industry is still largely inaccessible and SYN decided to develop a 12 month project to help address this issue, with funding support from Gandel Foundation.

The Home STREAT Home crowdfunding campaign, which is hoping to raise $100,000 by mid-July, has already raised over $60,000 with the help of a Community Grant from Gandel Foundation that matched dollar-for-dollar the first $30,000 of donations.

Children living with life-threatening conditions and their families located in Bendigo and the region will now receive much-needed support with the opening of a local Very Special Kids office in May 2016.

MIDY is a mobile-phone based system that is designed to help reduce alcohol consumption by young people. MIDY (Mobile Intervention for Drinking in Young people), provides personalised feedback by way of sending tailored SMS messages to youth while they are drinking alcohol.

Yarra Ranges Special Developmental School is a school for students with intellectual, multiple and sensory disabilities including autism spectrum disorder. Safe, reliable and viable transport options for large groups of their students proved a barrier and Yarra Ranges called on the community to help out.

The Song Room is a national not-for-profit organisation that provides opportunities for enhanced learning and development for disadvantaged children through music and the arts.
Gandel Foundation provided funding support to The Song Room in the past. Most recently, they received a two-year grant to deliver the Tuned in For Life program to reach primary school students in up to 12 disadvantaged and culturally diverse primary schools in the Hume region of Victoria.

Ready2Go is a community-led Heatwave relocation program which operates from Cockatoo in Victoria and was born out of a recognized need within the community to assist vulnerable people during heatwaves or other emergencies.

The Atherton Gardens estate in Fitzroy has been transformed by its resident children as a result of XSite, a Visionary Images’ pioneering creative project. The project is aimed at middle-year children who are increasingly experiencing difficulties.

Big West Festival is the leading community-based, contemporary arts festival in Melbourne’s West. A biennial festival, in 2015 the nine-day program ran from 20-28 November. In 2015, to celebrate its tenth anniversary, Big West Festival brought together 70 multicultural, multi-artform events.