Disadvantaged Children

The focus of the Disadvantaged Children grant program is to foster children’s emotional wellbeing, educational attainment, and life achievement opportunities to help them grow and thrive

Key dates

Status: Closed

Round reopens Oct/Nov 2026 (TBC)

Download guidelines

Granting overview

Available Funding:

Program objectives

We have developed the Disadvantaged Children grant program to address systemic issues contributing to disadvantage for children.

We are seeking submissions that:

Address systemic issues impacting children’s emotional wellbeing, educational attainment, and life achievement
Are innovative and take a systems view
Have a focus on prevention
Deploy integrative and collective impact approaches
Promote cross‐sector collaboration
Provide an evidence base to demonstrate the effectiveness of programs
Are Victorian based

Eligibility

Item 1 DGR organisationswhich are registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and endorsed with charity tax concessions.

Current recipients

Organisation	Project	Amount
Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative (BADAC)	Aboriginal Youth Cultural Engagement worker – Connecting vulnerable/at risk children and youth to Aboriginal culture, BADAC services, education and housing, before they are (further) enmeshed in the justice system	$50,000
Geelong Youth Engagement	Geelong Kokoda Youth Program student support – At risk young people participating in 20 weeks of physical training and mentoring to ultimately walk the 96km Kokoda Trek in Papua New Guinea.	$50,000
Banksia Gardens Association Incorporated	Northern Centre for Excellence in School Engagement (NCESE) – Initiative to address disengagement increasingly affecting younger students in the Northern region.	$50,000
MacKillop Family Services	Positive Pathways to Leaving Care – Preparing young people coming out of care to develop independent living skills through employment (FareShare charity kitchen) and mentoring	$50,000
Little Dreamers Australia	Young Carer Intake and Support – Working closely with young carers and their families to make sure the young carers are receiving tailored support.	$50,000
Beyond the Bell	Stepping Stones to School – Working with individual children and families to increase learning readiness for school and advance engagement and completion.	$91,210

Organisation
Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative (BADAC)
Geelong Youth Engagement
Banksia Gardens Association Incorporated
MacKillop Family Services
Little Dreamers Australia
Beyond the Bell
Project
Aboriginal Youth Cultural Engagement worker – Connecting vulnerable/at risk children and youth to Aboriginal culture, BADAC services, education and housing, before they are (further) enmeshed in the justice system
Geelong Kokoda Youth Program student support – At risk young people participating in 20 weeks of physical training and mentoring to ultimately walk the 96km Kokoda Trek in Papua New Guinea.
Northern Centre for Excellence in School Engagement (NCESE) – Initiative to address disengagement increasingly affecting younger students in the Northern region.
Positive Pathways to Leaving Care – Preparing young people coming out of care to develop independent living skills through employment (FareShare charity kitchen) and mentoring
Young Carer Intake and Support – Working closely with young carers and their families to make sure the young carers are receiving tailored support.
Stepping Stones to School – Working with individual children and families to increase learning readiness for school and advance engagement and completion.
Amount
$50,000
$50,000
$50,000
$50,000
$50,000
$91,210

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