YWCA Canberra announced the nine 2023 recipients for its annual its Great Ydeas Small Grants Program, this year with a funding pool of $18,500.

CEO Frances Crimmins said she was pleased to see the diversity of applications from individuals wanting to help their communities.

“The recipients for this year’s Great Ydeas Grants come from a range of backgrounds with different ideas, but their desire to go above and beyond for others is a consistent theme,” she said.

“We’re excited to fund projects such as building financial literacy for neurodivergent women,
providing grassroots support for isolated pregnant women and new mums, volunteer programs to build self-esteem in young women, and contributing towards developing an app
for pharmacists to help patients come off anti-depressants.”

The recipients are:

Pauline Siteaud – Project Empower – Reach Expansion

Project Empower (PE) is a volunteer-run program aimed uplifting, educating and empowering teenage girls across regional, rural, and remote Australia.

The program consists of tailor-made workshops that educate students about gender equality, build self-esteem, and encourage young women and non-binary people to embrace their leadership strengths.

PE consists of delivering annual, day-long workshops to approximately 20 high schools across
regional, rural and remote Australia.

Funding will be used to help market the workshops and expand the training for volunteers.

Deb Shroot – Building financial literacy through gamification for neurodivergent women.

Women are at greater risk of financial insecurity due to gender roles, caring and unpaid work, lower average incomes, domestic violence and less superannuation when they retire.

Neurodivergent women are at an even greater risk.

This project aims to develop a free, not-for-profit, financial literacy program based on a
gamification approach for neurodivergent young people to increase their financial literacy
and to help them develop skills that keep them safer from financial harm.

Imogen McDonald – Bossy Magazine 2023 Print Edition, “Vestige”

Bossy is the ANU Women’s Department autonomous feminist publication dedicated to
upholding intersectional feminism and empowering the community.

The purpose of the grant is to produce a print edition of the publication themed “Vestige”
aimed at encouraging the community to delve deeper into examining the relics of the past
that have been used to shape the history of women and marginalised identities, to reclaim

Hayley McClellan – EmpowerHER

EmpowerHER aims to develop and run a one-off (initially) Neurodiverse Expo for Canberra
providing an opportunity for creative, young neurodiverse women to showcase their artistic
talents.

Beyond the Expo, the project seeks to establish a supportive structure to learn from the project and to help those involved build self-esteem, create connections and provide pathways to employment and financial independence.

Nicole Deen – Mama Connect Walk ‘n’Talk

Mama Connect is a new social enterprise that supports pregnant people and mothers in Canberra to ride the waves of motherhood with more ease, confidence and joy.

The funding will be used to support pregnant women and mothers during a time where they may feel isolated, judged, and overwhelmed as they enter motherhood and may not have support available.

The free Walk ‘n’ Talk sessions run at four locations around Canberra. The sessions include a
gentle walk with a simple afternoon tea and are lightly facilitated around a central theme including questions related to motherhood.

Louise Starr – The Fourth Connection

The Fourth Connection project aims to provide companionship and social support to single mothers in Canberra during their first 12 weeks of motherhood.

The objective of the project is to reduce feelings of loneliness experienced by single mothers
towards reducing their risk factors for post-partum depression. The grant will be used to fund an initial 12-month pilot program including phone services, in-person support and identifying appropriate support services.

Maria Wallace – Stepping for Resilience

Using the Stepping for Resilience model, the project is to start a parents, seniors and bubs, weekly community walk/run in Canberra.

Its intended to provide a caring peer-based and generation-up community to support parents through health, mental health, post-natal depression and suicide risks post-partum.

The grant will be used as a kickstart to help establish family-friendly events in terms of timing and build a sustainable core group of participants.

Alicia Martin – TaperMate

As a pharmacist, Alicia is keen to develop an app to support patients to come off anti-depressants safely. The app, to be called TaperMate will use evidence-based guidance to help patients develop and follow safe tapering plans, and to track and record their progress to support discussions with health professionals such as their pharmacists.

The grant will be used to fund a trip to the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s conference to enter the Pharmacy Shark Tank competition to win up to $10,000 in funding for the prototyping phase of the proposed app, and to network with other potential investors.

Ros Kewley – Crafty Queens

Run by college students, this project aims to help build skills for young women to connect, promote themselves and their talents and explore financial opportunities for themselves through selling their products.

The grant will be used to deliver a market stall and to help professionalise the product range for Crafty Queens.