The John Villiers Trust Annual Report: Developing partnerships focus for JVT in FY23
6 December 2023
The John Villiers Trust (JVT) Annual Report 2023 highlights the Trust’s focus on developing partnerships to benefit those living in rural, regional and remote Queensland.
The recently-released report features and celebrates the stories and successes of our grantees, and the greater impact that can be achieved through collaboration.
JVT is committed to working with like-minded organisations whose projects are community based, informed or led, and have multiple, deep, and long-lasting impacts that will outlast JVT’s involvement.
The John Villiers Trust (JVT) approved five new grants this year totalling $402,878 and distributed $606,849 in grant payments in FY23, across our 14 active grantees.
Lea-Anne Bradley, CEO of The John Villiers Trust, said across the year, JVT remained focused on driving more strategic funding initiatives and collaborating with other funders to support projects under development.
“We know we can do better together, and the greater impact we can have by sharing resources, knowledge, connections and experience,” Lea-Anne said.
“JVT funding for our 14 active grants totalled $2,248,326, but we leveraged an additional $9,540,000 through co-funding for these initiatives.
“That’s a big difference for our grantees, who work so hard to achieve transformative change in rural, regional and remote communities.”
The new grants awarded for FY23 are:
Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (2023 – 2025): Amplifying the youth voices of Queensland
$100,000 over three years to increase the impact of the FRRR ABC Heywire Youth Innovation Program, including state-specific funding to conduct additional outreach, build capacity for youth and communities, and increase the number of youth-focused projects funded in Queensland.
CQUniversity & ArcBlue (2023): Supporting the local community to build a bespoke socio-economic solution that meets their needs
$50,000 of seed funding to help build the foundations of a bespoke place-based program, Q-SEED, that is designed to help build economic opportunities and is being piloted in the Townsville region.
Outback Exploratorium (2023): Breaking down barriers to STEAM learning in outback Queensland
$50,000 for capacity-building support to plan the transformation of the Outback Exploratorium into a sustainable profit-for-purpose social enterprise that advances an out-of-school, STEAM educational ecosystem in country Queensland.
Cowboys Community Foundation (2023 – 2026): Boarding for success – evaluating our impact
$150,378 over three years to improve evaluation methods to ensure NRL Cowboys House is achieving its intended impact, to provide unique, culturally-safe boarding for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from remote north Queensland attending partner schools in Townsville.
The Waltzing Matilda Centre (2024 – 2026): John Villiers Outback Art Prize
$52,500 for a further three years to continue the support for the John Villiers Outback Art Prize, including the Emerging Youth category, and to support the new Children’s Art Project and Digital Exhibition, which encourages budding artists aged 5-14 years to get involved, and gives them a voice and opportunity to express themselves through art.
For over 20 years JVT has supported a wide range of charitable projects across Queensland, with communities benefiting from $10.8 million to date in grants.
For a list of initiatives we currently support, click here. If you would like to join us in supporting transformative change for country Queensland communities, you can donate to The John Villiers Trust here.
Read our Annual Report 2023.
