Healthy Parks Healthy People Grants for Community Groups

Parks Victoria's 2012-13 Healthy Parks Healthy People Grants for Community Groups is now open for applications.

Applications close at 5pm, 17 December 2012.

Parks Victoria is committed to excellent relationships with the community. Our ability to continue to protect and enhance one of the world's finest network of parks, bays and waterways relies on the support of Friends Groups, volunteers and other community groups.

Parks Victoria is adopts a Healthy Parks Healthy People approach to enabling people to experience the health benefits associated with the precious natural environment. The grants for Community Groups one of the ways in which we develop and support projects that are important to communities, their health and that benefit Victoria's parks.

The 2012-2013 Healthy Parks Healthy People Grants:

• Help local groups to deliver projects which protect and enhance the natural, cultural and heritage values of parks and reserves;
• Provide diverse recreational, educational, cultural and tourism opportunities of importance to local communities;
• Facilitate the involvement of the wider multicultural community in environmental and recreational projects; and
• Increases community awareness and understanding of parks and their values.

Healthy Parks Healthy People Grants are available to community-based groups/not for profit organisations such as (but not confined to):

• friends groups
• service clubs
• cultural groups
• migrant resource centres
• schools
• historic societies

View and download information on the 2012-13 Healthy Parks Healthy People Grants.

Prospective applicants should contact the relevant Ranger In Charge for the park or reserve in which your group are planning to undertake the project to obtain an application form and to discuss the proposal. The application can be filled in with the assistance of local staff and must be endorsed by the Ranger In Charge prior to submission.

Projects will commence as soon as possible after the pool of projects are assessed and successful projects approved. They must be completed by 31 May 2014.

Please phone 13 1963 if you are unsure of who to contact or for any further advice.

Communities for Nature Grants

The Victorian Government is committed to supporting the Victorian community to contribute to practical on-ground solutions for local environmental issues.

The Communities for Nature grants program seeks to:

• support practical community action to deliver measurable environmental outcomes;
• support community groups and volunteers undertaking works of primarily an environmental nature; and
• support communities with relevant and timely information to assess priorities at the local level to determine the best returns in undertaking on-ground works.

Communities for Nature grants are targeted towards local community groups and organisations, including schools.

Projects are expected to address local environmental issues such as:

• Biodiversity and habitat preservation (preservation of areas known for their biodiversity and habitat values), or
• Threatened species recovery, or
• Sustainable management of native wildlife, or
• Revegetation (of areas that enhance existing habitat or connectivity) , or
• Cleaning up waterways (creeks, wetlands, streams, rivers and seas), or
• Control of weeds and pest animals

The program has up to $700,000 to invest for the 2012 Small Grants Funding Opportunity for grants of up to $10,000 each.

Projects that will be completed by 31 May 2014 are eligible for funding.

Applications can be submitted online from 1:00pm on 10 November 2012 and close at midnight on 19 December 2012.

To apply, or for further information, please visit DEPI's website.