Great Ydeas Small Grants Program
Applications have closed for the 2021 YWCA Canberra Great Ydeas Small Grants. If you have a Great Ydea, check back again in early 2022 to see what grants we will have available.
About Great Ydeas
YWCA Canberra’s Great Ydeas Small Grants Program provides grants up to $2500 to support women, girls and non-binary people in the ACT to pursue their passions and improve our community.
The program was launched in 2010 in celebration of our 80th anniversary. Since then, Great Ydeas grants have helped more than 60 local women and girls to progress projects including establishing a podcast, launching a public awareness campaign, running empowering programs for girls, attending a conference and launching a social enterprise.
Priority is given to projects that empower women in our local community, and that have the potential to grow beyond the initial funding provided.
If you have any questions, get in touch at caf.team@ywca-canberra.org.au. You can also review our frequently asked questions page and find out about past recipients.
2021 Great Ydeas partners
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2021 Great Ydeas recipients
Sustineo grants
Rae Knopik: The CBR Gals Network Directory
The CBR Gals Network Directory is Canberra’s inclusive repository of all women-run (including non-binary-run) businesses. It provides enduring value for Canberrans who wish to support women’s businesses and improve the status of women’s financial lives by serving as a ‘yellow pages’ of all the businesses that are owned and operated by women.
Based on research that found that Canberran women want to support other women in business, but lack the tools to, the Directory provides Canberra women in business with a free platform to showcase their products and collaborate with other women-run businesses.
Jean Du: Primary
Primary is a program to change the narrative on menstruation by providing menstrual, sexual health, and reproductive education and advising agencies of the optimal ways to implement considerations of gender.
It aims to address the gendered stigma of menstruation to empower women, girls, and others who menstruate, in Australia and around the world, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific, to reclaim ownership of their bodies.
Canberra Innovation Network grants
Natalie Williams: Currawong Collective
This project establishes an innovative new collective network of women composers based in Australia. As a professional association to promote women’s music and skills to the artistic industry, the Collective will fill professional gaps, and amplify and connect musical women with work opportunities. It promotes music written by women, raising their voices in a male-dominated field, and build a community of women composers.
Serina Bird: The Joyful Fashionista
The Joyful Fashionista is an online platform for buying and selling second-hand and sustainably produced new clothing. It aims to transform fashion in Australia by encouraging more women to embrace second-hand, vintage and sustainable clothing, and making it more accessible and affordable.
The Joyful Fashionista is about creating a community that celebrates the joy of wearing second hand and sustainable, and creating an inclusive image of fashion.
Beyond Bank grants
Zainab Farouk: Be Your Best
Be Your Best is a professional development conference for culturally and linguistically diverse women to be delivered by local multicultural women’s support group the Phoenix Sisters.
This one-day conference will inspire multicultural women and provide strategies and tool kits for them to lead and excel in the Australian workplace. Attendees will develop long-lasting networks in their local communities to leverage support to help grow and develop their careers. They will also have access to ongoing mentoring and networking sessions.
YWCA Canberra grants
Camille Schloeffel: Safe Response Toolkit
The Safe Response Toolkit Project provides information to victim-survivors of sexual violence and their supporters about how to safely respond to disclosures and access support services in Canberra.
Available in both digital and physical form, the toolkit will provide clear, trauma-informed and accessible information for victim-survivors in Canberra regarding the personal, legal and medical considerations when disclosing and reporting sexual violence.
It aims to reduce the stigmatisation of sexual violence and provide victim-survivors with the autonomy to access and navigate available support systems.
Kate Crowhurst: Financial literacy workshops for young women
With the worsening economic participation of women during the COVID-19 pandemic, this project aims to support the financial literacy development of young women by providing guidance on ways to manage their money and use it to afford the life choices they want to create. It aims to empower young feminists to feel empowered as economic participants making choices with their finances.
The course complements existing resources on the Money Bites website, which Kate developed from a previous Great Ydeas grant, as an enduring resource for young women.
Jae Brieffes: Young Visionaries Lab
Young Visionaries Lab (YVL) is a weekly program designed to introduce students to basic principles of project management, strategic communications, scaling, sustainability and impact measurement, while supporting them to develop the skills and vision needed to pursue a purpose-driven career.
It provides inspiration, training and guided implementation to empower young people to exceed in their communities as significant contributors to social progress.
Cinnamone Winchester: Memento Mori: Bossy Magazine’s Seventh Print Edition
Bossy magazine is the ANU Women’s Department’s annual print and online publication. Managed by undergraduate ANU students, Bossy accepts submissions from women, femme-aligned, non-binary, and genderqueer ANU students, staff, and alumni.
Bossy provides a platform for BIPOC and traditionally marginalised groups to inject their perspectives into mainstream culture. It aims to provide a space where contributors can speak loudly and without apology, to advocate for gender equity, to educate as many people as possible about intersectionality and intersectional feminism, and to shed light on the realities that marginalised members of our community face each and every day.