Charities helping disadvantaged young Australians are invited to apply for grants of up to $10,000 from Future2, the foundation of the Australian financial planning profession.  Applications for the new round of Make the Difference! Grants, now in their fifth year, must be submitted by 2 August.

Future2 Chair Steve Helmich called on financial planners and advisers to support applications from local charitable organisations working with young people trapped in difficult financial and social circumstances.  “Your support can make the difference, resulting in a grant that gives hope for a better future to disadvantaged young Australians”, he said.

To date, 15 charities around Australia have benefitted from Future2 grants totaling over $150,000, bringing life-enhancing changes to the lives of young people.

Future2 Make the Difference! Grants focus on the under 25s who may be financially disadvantaged, homeless, juvenile justice offenders, drug or alcohol dependent, disabled or Indigenous.  Grants are awarded to projects and programs in the areas such as financial literacy, skills training, work experience, community service or mentoring.

“The grants seek to give money where it will have greatest impact.  We like to give grants to small community based charities whose work is likely to be saved, enabled or transformed by our grants”, Mr Helmich said.
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“Trustees will also hope to see active involvement by financial planning professionals in the work of the charity”, he added.
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The Make the Difference! Grant program is designed to encourage the involvement of financial planners in community projects, as well as to provide critical support to disadvantaged young Australians.   Financial planning professionals who are members of either the Financial Planning Association or the Association of Financial Advisers may support grant applications from charities in their local areas.
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Initial applications, supported by a financial planner, must be received by close of business on 2 August.  Future2 will invite the strongest applicants to submit a full proposal.  The trustees’ final decision will be announced on 17 November 2011.
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click to read grant guidelines
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Future2 is the foundation of the Australian financial planning profession.  It exists to support the financially under-privileged and to enable the profession and associated stakeholders to give back to the community from which they draw their livelihoods.
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Future2 grants 2007 – 2010

• QLD SearchLight’s Brisbane community project at Southside Education, to build the financial and life skills of girls who are alienated from their families and mainstream education (2007)
• VIC Access Mildura’s new retail training facility to expand the employment opportunities of disabled and under privileged youth in Sunraysia (2007)
• SA  Anglicare’s Nile United Youth Group project for young Sudanese refugees at the Magdalene Centre in Adelaide, to assist their integration into Australian life through life skills and financial education (two grants: 2007 and 2008)
• VIC Whitelion’s mentoring program for young offenders and those at risk of custody; Whitelion also provides employment and outreach opportunities in Victoria and other states (2008)
• VIC Loddon Murray Community Leadership Program, encouraging youth leadership development in north central Victoria rural communities (2008)
• QLD Youth Information and Referral Service’s Young Driver Program Helps  socially excluded young people in Mackay gain their drivers licences and a better chance of work (2008)
• NSW Youth off the Streets Scholarship program in Mascot to assist 14 to 21 year olds to reach their full potential, achieve vocational goals and realise their capabilities (2009)
• NSW Police & Community Youth Clubs Music program in Orange giving young people their first hands-on experience of playing a musical instrument (2009)
• SA Time for Kids’ Financial Wizards Project in Adelaide, to help young parents (16-25 years) of children in respite care and family support, to set up household budgets and develop financial goals (2009)
• NSW Australian Children’s Music Foundation Youth at Risk program – helping to make music a permanent feature of every Juvenile Detention Centre in Australia (2010)
• NSW Family Resource & Network Support Inc – financial literacy program for young people with physical and intellectual disabilities, aimed at helping them develop essential money skills  (2010)
• ACT Galilee’s Young Women’s Graft Group in Pearce   A grant to enable the set up of the group and purchase of essential supplies, to facilitate hands-on training in small business management for young mothers who are the victims of homelessness, domestic violence and drug / alcohol dependencies  (2010)
• VIC Mission Australia’s Charcoal Lane, a social enterprise restaurant providing training and work experience to Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people (2010)
• QLD Friedrich Ataxia Research Association A grant to purchase a wheelchairs for sisters, aged 18 and 20 years, who are suffering from Friedrich Ataxia, a rare degenerative and life-shortening condition, made jointly with the AFA Foundation (2010)

The post Future2 opens new round of grants supporting local charities appeared first on AdviserVoice.

The Association of Financial Advisers Foundation (AFA Foundation) and Future2, the foundation of the Australian financial planning profession, have pooled their resources to support the purchase of wheelchairs for Jamie-Lee and Samantha Dwyer, sisters aged 18 and 20 years, who are suffering from Friedrich Ataxia (FA), a rare degenerative and life-shortening condition.

The grant application, which is in addition to the annual Future2 Make the Difference! Grant round, was supported by Tony Lindley, a member of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and a long-standing friend of the Dwyer family.

Since Jamie-Lee and Samantha were diagnosed with the condition seven years ago, their father, Mike Dwyer, who is their primary carer, has volunteered some 30 hours a week through the Friedrich Ataxia Research Association (FARA) to finding a cure..

“Both girls attend university and are positive and inspirational young ladies,” Mr Lindley says.  “But unless a cure or treatment is found soon, their future is bleak.”

Mr Lindley said lightweight manual wheelchairs will enable Jamie-Lee and Samantha to maintain some independence and greatly improve their quality of life.  “It will also take some of the financial pressure away from the family which is supporting not only their own disabled children but also others affected by the condition.”

There are some 300 FA sufferers in Australia and many more worldwide.

AFA Foundation Chair Brian Boggs and Future2 Chair Steve Helmich welcomed the collaboration between the two charitable foundations.

“More powerfully than words ever can, this grant shows that financial advisers are a concerned group of business people who willingly give back to their communities, ”Mr Boggs said.

“The AFA Foundation is delighted that Future2 trustees, recognizing the grant’s transformative effect on lives of Jamie-Lee and Samantha , decided to make a $5,000 contribution.,”

Future2 Chair, Steven Helmich said that while the grant was outside Future2’s established grants program, it will make the ultimate difference to the sisters.

“It’s all too easy for those of us who are able bodied to take our mobility for granted,” he said.  “More than that, this grant opens the way to Future2 working more closely with the AFA Foundation and members of the Association of Financial Advisers and Future2 welcome that.”

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