ITV provide major boost via grant funds

By Madeline Murray

THE BRITISH-BASED network, ITV, which produces I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, has generously forked out grants totalling $50,000 each year from its Tweed Community Initiative Fund (TCIF).

The grants of $2,500 are given to 20 organisations with an impressive range of issues and needs.

Congratulations to the following groups that completed their 2021 projects and initiatives.

Tweed Landcare

A very innovative project was Speed Planting day: Landcare for Singles event.

On a sunny Sunday in November, over 20 people planted 250 koala and glossy black-cockatoo food and habitat trees on a property at Nunderi where there had been a koala sighting.

This win-win project gave like-minded singles a chance to connect, help the Tweed environment, and enjoy a live performance and homemade dinner afterwards.

Zero Emissions Tweed

This group used their ITV TCIF grant money to commission a new website from a local developer to act as a hub for locals looking to reduce their carbon emissions.

The website www.zeroemissionstweed.org features a stunning new logo, and showcases tips for reducing carbon emissions.

“The new website site is much more user friendly, and allows people an easy way to contact the organisation,” Conal Hanna, Zero Emissions Tweed communications officer, told The Weekly.

Support for New Mums

Support for New Mums used the grant to provide training workshops to upskill their volunteers in the areas of breastfeeding, birth trauma, postnatal depression and sleep.

Workshops provided volunteers with vital skills and knowledge to better support the wellbeing and health of mums and their babies.

Support for New Mums is a volunteer-led organisation created to support mothers with new babies in the Tweed Shire, who are struggling to cope due to social isolation, emotional wellbeing, and little or no family support – a situation exacerbated by COVID.

Team Koala (2020 project was delayed due to COVID)

Volunteer-run Team Koala aims to educate, and increase public awareness, of the endangered status of the Tweed Coast koalas and threats to koala habitat.

The grant was used for a ‘bumper sticker’ project for primary school students across three schools.

The project was designed for children to research and create artwork which addresses the five main threats to koalas on the Tweed Coast, namely bushfire, habitat loss, vehicle strike, disease and dog attack.

Murwillumbah Community Garden

The grant was used to develop a safe, attractive entrance to the thriving garden, a community hub.

The project included making tree limbs safe, creating a meeting place, improving signage, basic landscaping, and decorative planting.

ITV TCIF previously supported acquisitions and installations at the garden, including rainwater tanks, gardening tools, and more recently funding a yearlong series of agri-focused education workshops.

Murwillumbah Community Centre

The ITV TCIF application was to support increased engagement of men and boys by employing special- ist Aboriginal male cultural workers to focus boys and young men on a specific project.

They were to build a traditional dwelling, to increase their skills, knowledge, responsibility and understanding of custodianship and contribution.

Participants met with local Elders and cultural knowledge holders to find out about traditional Aboriginal dwelling structures, the materials and logic for their design.

The group was supported and mentored to design a traditional Gunyah learning space, gather materials, build the dance grounds and Gunyah in the lead up to The Kinship Festival, where over 5000 people saw the amazing structure in 2022.

The Gunyah is now being erected on a permanent site on 73 acres at Uki, and will be used as a cultural learning space for Guyahyn Aboriginal Playgroup, Kids Caring for Country, a family after school program and a space for cultural camps and art activities.