Recipients of CommBank Staff Foundation Community Grants share their stories

Times have never been tougher for community organisations working tirelessly across our nation to improve the way we live. The good news? This year, the CommBank Staff Foundation doubled its community impact, giving 175 organisations $20,000 each through its 2024 Community Grants program. Thanks to regular salary donations from generous staff members, which are then matched by CommBank, $3.5 million has been raised to provide funding for a wide range of projects and organisations—from those supporting mental health and First Nations peoples’ education to reducing homelessness and domestic and family violence. Here, three grant recipients tell their stories.

Jayne Clowes, Carrie’s Place

Jayne Clowes is the CEO of Carrie’s Place, a not-for-profit NSW organisation offering a range of services for people experiencing domestic violence and/or homelessness.

Jayne: In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need an organisation like Carrie’s Place to exist at all but the truth is that we’re needed more than ever. Within the past year alone, 63 women were murdered around Australia and 6000 women were hospitalised as a result of domestic violence. Not only do these figures increase from quarter to quarter, we also know that the real figures are significantly higher because incidents of domestic violence are grossly underreported.

Carrie’s Place — established in 1979 by a group of women local to the Hunter Valley area, working to keep women who are fleeing domestic violence situations safe — provides a wide range of programs and services for those experiencing domestic and family violence, as well as those who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. 

Covering a large footprint of the Upper Hunter and Hunter Valley regions, we offer a court advocacy service, specialist homelessness services, an outreach service, an accommodation program and a Staying Home Leaving Violence program, where we work with a client to keep her and her children in the family home while moving the perpetrator out — this is done in situations where appropriate and in liaison with NSW Police. We know homelessness is a major contributing factor for women fleeing domestic violence so it’s been great to be able to run this program for the past 12 years.

“We provide programs and services for those experiencing domestic and family violence.” - Jayne Clowes

I joined Carrie’s Place four years ago because I knew I’d throw everything at making a difference for vulnerable women. As need grows so, too, do we. There are now 53 staff — up from the 29 we started with — and we receive more government funding [Carrie’s Place is 98 per cent government funded] but we just can’t keep up with demand or the increased cost of living. We receive a small CPI increase each year but it doesn’t come close to covering the increases we’ve seen in the cost of food or fuel we need to buy for those in emergency situations. 

Other challenges we’re facing are the recruitment and retention of staff — it’s easy to get burnt out doing what we do — and the significant rise in the number of complex cases we’re seeing. We used to see one every two to three weeks but since COVID-19, it’s daily and they’re almost always presented with mental health issues to navigate.

One of the things I’m proudest of is the post-pandemic reintroduction and expansion of our group work programs. Most are six weeks long and aimed at educating women and equipping them with new skills, whether it be discovering pathways to employment or reconnecting with their children. Having young children at home can often prevent women from accessing these programs so we’re looking to use our CBA grant to partner with a local childcare provider that can assist with that barrier. Our ultimate goal? To increase the number of families in the Hunter region that feel safe and live life free from violence and the risk of homelessness.

For confidential information, counselling and support, we recommend calling 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or texting 0458 737 732. This is a free and confidential service that isn’t part of Commonwealth Bank. In an emergency or if you’re feeling unsafe, always call 000.

Murray Holm, LearnIT

Murray Holm is the Road Safety Program team leader at LearnIT, a Queensland based mentoring program designed to assist young learner drivers who don’t have access to a vehicle obtain their provisional licence. 

Murray: Long before there was LearnIT, I put in 15 years as a road safety program director, helping some 18,000 disadvantaged young people get their learner licence. Over that time, I discovered many of my students weren’t progressing to their Ps, as they had no access to a vehicle in which to rack up the driving hours. If you don’t have your licence — around the Townsville area in particular — it can be a significant barrier to pursuing employment. When I was made redundant from my job in 2015, I just thought, ‘Well, what better time to focus on helping drivers under 25 get their Ps and change the course of their futures?’ 

The LearntIT learner-driver mentor program — designed to address critical barriers to employment for young people and develop social skills through mentoring — kicked off in 2018 after a local car dealership, Pickerings Auto Group, donated two cars for us to use. We put our drivers — under-25s with some sort of disadvantage or no access to a vehicle — through a five-stage program, from low-risk to high-risk driving.

“This money has the power to transform the way we train our drivers.” - Murray Holm 

In the Townsville area, more than 5000 families don’t have access to a vehicle and some 25,000 have access to one but a parent may be using it to get to work themselves so they’re unable to put in the driving hours. In the past year, we’ve also seen a significant increase in the number of families who have a car but can no longer afford fuel or the cost of keeping it roadworthy.

If you’ve ever seen the joy that radiates from a young person holding up their P-plates for the first time, you’ll understand the high I get from doing what I do — but that isn’t to say it’s challenge-free. We have a 95 per cent first-time success rate compared with a state average of 54 per cent and about 80 per cent are unemployed but most end up in a job soon after they complete our program. These are fantastic figures but although we have 40 volunteers, we could easily do with 100 more to reduce our 1200-strong waitlist. I now have five cars to work with but most of the time they’re sitting in the car park because we just don’t have enough hands being raised to help build a stronger, safer community.

I was speechless when I found out about the grant, because this money has the power to transform the way we train our drivers. We plan to spend it on driving simulators to move learners through the earliest stages of the program on a computer, in turn enabling us to whittle down our list faster. You want to be able to help everyone who needs it.

Tanya Greenwood, St Helens Neighbourhood House

Tanya Greenwood is the project manager: children, young people and families at St Helens Neighbourhood House, a not-for-profit organisation offering a wealth of activities designed to meet the needs of youth.

Tanya: The first thing anyone needs to know about St Helens is that it’s the regional centre of the Break O’Day community and the heartland of North East Tasmania’s farming and fishing industries. It’s a popular summer holiday destination but it’s home to a predominantly older, retired population. Much of the focus around here is on providing support and services for older Australians so we’re working hard to make St Helens a place where young people have opportunities and support in place, too. 

The services we offer at St Helens Neighbourhood House are plentiful and varied, such as our school mentoring program and mental health support services. We also have myriad youth-led programs for kids aged between 12 and 19, each one designed around peer-to-peer connection and — where possible — being immersed in nature. 

“We’re working to make St Helens a place where young people have opportunities.” - Tanya Greenwood

We take kids mountain biking, hiking, fishing and more. We’ve discovered a lot of teens would love to spend more time outdoors — which we know is important for feelings of confidence and self esteem — but many don’t have the resources or a family member who can take them. 

Of course, with the current cost of living, we’re living through a challenging period — while we have plenty of volunteers rolling up their sleeves, we’re also finding that some families may not be able to afford to put fuel in the car to get here or buy data for their phones. We’re currently in the process of merging St Helens Neighbourhood House with the Fingal Valley outpost about an hour away and we’re always working to do better, to do more. 

The CommBank grant is wonderful in so many ways. Not only will the money allow us to put extra funding into our youth-led programs and offer activities the kids would love [and regularly suggest] which are well outside our core budget but there’s flexibility on how we deliver products and services. 

We would like to develop a few more nature-based programs, such as abseiling and water-based activities but also encourage the leadership capacity of our older participants. We’re also keen to tap into the skill sets of older members of our community to see how we can bridge the division between generations and build further connections. The last thing we want is for young people to feel like they’re overlooked or that they have to leave the area to fulfil their aspirations. We want a rounded community for all.

Find out more about CommBank’s Community Grants program.

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