ITV Grants are back to help

By Madeleine Murray

THE 2023 ITV grants round opens on Thursday, August 17, and closes on Sunday, September 17.

This gives groups over four weeks to prepare and submit their applications.

The ITV TCIF (Tweed Community Initiative Fund) began in 2017 as a way of giving back to the Tweed Shire which hosts the ITV production ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!’.

Since then, ITV Studios, owned by British public broadcast network ITV, has donated more than $307,000 in 115 grants, making the grants program well known among not-for-profit groups across the Tweed.

A new community committee has been established and is made up of three respected, independent leaders from the Tweed.

The role of the committee is to assess applications and allocate the funds for the 2023 round.

New committee member Joan Henderson has many years’ experience as a social worker in health and hospitals working with adults and children. Joan volunteers as an education advocate to remote Indigenous communities, an advocate for Dementia Australia, and is a refugee advocate and convener with Uki Refugee Project, for which she was awarded Tweed Citizen of the Year 2022.

“We have so many inspiring groups in our community who work voluntarily to assist others, or to enrich our community life in a variety of inspiring ways,” Joan told The Weekly.

“For me it is a total privilege to be involved in supporting the activities of these groups.”

Joe Russell served in the Australian Army from 1970-76. As a returned Vietnam veteran, he was a paramedic for a number of years and also worked in the concreting industry.

Joe recently received an OAM for his dedicated service to the veteran community as a compensation advocate.

Rebecca Whan is a passionate advocate for small business and community engagement. She is involved in a number of significant projects across the Tweed including being project architect of M|Arts Precinct, president of Business Murwillumbah, and sitting on panels and advi-