Bupa Community Grants Recipient

Bupa today announced the recipients of its 2024 Bupa Foundation Community Grants program, with 54 community groups sharing in $520,000 to support programs that build mentally healthy and resilient communities and address the link between planet health and human health.

The Community Grants Program started in 2019 and, to date, has provided more than $2 million to support communities across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

Roger Sharp, Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer, Bupa Asia Pacific said local community groups may be small in scale, but the impact they can make on society from a health and environmental perspective is immense.

“While the Bupa Foundation supports a range of major initiatives across ANZ through major partnerships with organisations such as Kids Helpline, The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and NZ Landcare Trust, boosting grass-roots programs at a local level remains a vital part of our ambition to help create healthier cities.

“This year’s Grants recipients are diverse in terms of their location and purpose, with all Australian States and Territories represented along with both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. We look forward to seeing this investment help these incredible local organisations drive physical, mental and environmental benefits for their local communities,” Roger said.

The full list of Bupa Foundation Community Grant recipients and the programs supported through the Bupa Foundation Community Grants program: 

Australia

• 12 Buckets Inc: Through a youth outreach program, Year 6 students in low-socio economic areas will engage in weekly peer mentoring and 1:1 support increasing their ability to successfully transition into high school.
• AFL Masters Vic Country: Will work with AFL Victoria to create an AFL Nines program for people over 35 to get involved in a new program aimed at improving social connection opportunities and improve health and wellbeing of participants and their communities.
• Assistance Dogs Australia: Will train and place 20 Assistance Dogs over the next 18 months to support veterans and first responders across Australia.
• Batyr Australia: Will deliver preventative mental health education and early intervention programs in schools, with an emphasis on peer-to-peer lived experience storytelling.
• Berry Street Victoria: Will run SafeCare, an evidence-based early intervention program for parents of children under 5 who are at risk of, or have been reported, for neglect or abuse.
• Bonbeach Football Club: To continue to provide the Outside the Locker Room program in 2025 to all members and families reinforcing the importance of recognising mental health literacy and providing learning skills to help and improve their awareness.
• Bucaan Community House: Will run a series of workshops aimed at empowering community members by teaching sustainable practices along with growing and cooking fresh food, thereby improving their personal health and the health of our planet.
• CAN Community Support: Will run The Bi-Lingual Playgroup for families in Carlton with pre-school aged children to give them an opportunity to come together once a week for social and educational purposes.
• Cancer Patients Foundation Limited: The Look Good Feel Better program offers cancer patients the opportunity to learn practical strategies to manage the physical, psychological and social impacts of cancer treatment.
• Carers Collective (North East): Will run a range of structured and unstructured activities that aim to foster connection, self-reflection, community spirit, resilience and self-awareness.
• Collective Being: Will run sessions to help equip participants with evidence-informed, body-based mindfulness skills that support nervous system regulation and decrease symptoms of stress, anxiety and overwhelm.
• Collingwood Children’s Farm: The Community Connection Initiative at The Collingwood Children’s Farm aims to enhance the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of individuals at risk of social exclusion by providing free access to their urban farm.
• Conservation Council of WA: The Citizen Science BioBlitz is a series of outdoor ecological surveys that will be conducted throughout 2025. Each survey will be held in a different natural area with a focus on identifying and gathering data on local species.
• Cycling without Age Australia: Will use the grant to purchase a Orthros Bike for volunteer run charity Cycling Without Age Brisbane to support older people and people with disability to get out into our communities, build new memories and relationships, reduce isolation and improve well-being.
• Down Syndrome Association of NSW: Will run a project focused on educating parents and carers about mental health, guiding them on seeking support, and building their capacity to navigate available mental health services.
• Electrify Boroondara: This project will offer education, information, and support to community groups to reduce emissions while lowering energy bills and enhancing health and comfort in their homes.
• Empowering Parents in Crisis: Will provide parents/caregivers with the adequate education and resources to guide their young people towards a healthy mindset, via Youth Mental Health First Aid training programs.
• Fitzroy Lions Soccer Club: The “FLSC Friendships” project is a buddy system for promoting participation via increased social connection and belonging for new members of the club.
• Foodbank of South Australia: Will distribute up to 2,500 meal packs to increase food security for the most vulnerable families in our community.
• Legacy Club Services: The Sydney Legacy Connecting Program will address the impact of social isolation and mental health of older widows/ers in Sydney, aged between 65 and 105, who have lost veteran loved ones.
• Luma: By partnering with a local Perth school with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students, The River Project aims to foster a deeper connection between the students, their local environment and each other by combining art, education, and cultural learning.
• Mentoring Men: Across Australia, there is a critical need for early intervention programs addressing men’s mental health. Mentoring Men will target this gap in Sydney, Australia with a free, one-to-one mentoring program.
• Mental Health Association NSW: The Mind + Movement program will combine physical activity with mental health literacy and education, offering an integrated holistic approach to well-being.
• Mind Australia Limited: Will run a 3-day and 2-night camp encompassing strategic activities that target and promote positive mental health amongst local young people.
• Momentum Mental Health Limited: Will hold “Someone Club” workshops for a broad range of community members covering three main topics: The “5 ways to wellbeing”, “Setting personal boundaries” and “how to have a conversation with someone in distress.”
• Proveda Limited: Proveda’s Belong Club, with the Dance Health Alliance, will provide fortnightly dance classes for those 65 and older, including individuals with disabilities.
• Riding for the Disabled Association of Victoria: Will run Horse assisted activities that are proven therapeutic activities that supports mental wellbeing, emotional healing, physical development and social interaction with children (and adults) with disabilities. 
• River Nile Learning Centre: Will distribute staple foods, free of charge to students who are all struggling on limited welfare payments or no welfare payments.
• Share the Dignity: The “It’s In The Bag” campaign will encourage everyday Australians to put together bags filled with essential items to donate to women, girls, and those who menstruate who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness, domestic violence, or poverty.
• Speak and Share: The Speak & Share Program is dedicated to breaking the stigma surrounding mental health and normalising conversations in schools, sporting clubs, and workplaces across Victoria.
• Star of the Sea Catholic Parish Primary School Henley Beach: The Bupa Marine Science Program for children and their families is designed to improve mental health while empowering the community with simple steps to combat climate change.
• The Legacy Club of Brisbane: Legacy Brisbane will continue to support people a with a disability across Queensland who have lost a veteran parent through its Explorers program.
• The Man Cave Global: The Man Cave services runs programs equip teenage boys with the tools to identify, articulate and regulate their emotions, seek support in healthy ways, develop healthy relationships and ultimately prevent the onset of sudden or gradual development of mental ill-health.
• The Project Rockit Foundation: The BELONG project addresses social disadvantage in low socio-economic schools by offering workshops that build resilience, peer connections, and social skills.
• The Push for Better Foundation: Each year, hundreds of schools participate in The Push-Up Challenge. This helps to open up thousands of conversations about mental health in Australian schools.
• The Sports Excellence Scholarship Fund: Their 2025 scholarship initiative will focus on expanding its reach in providing crucial financial support to 350 talented young athletes facing significant financial hardship.
• The Type1 Foundation: The T1F counselling sessions will provide free mental health support for families who have a newly diagnosed child under the age of 18.
• Tough Guy Book Club: Aims to target and build 10 new communities (chapters) that will engage men to have relationships/friends outside of work while promoting mental and physical health.
• Victorian Aids Council: Sustainable Style provides monthly textile-based workshops for LGBTIQA+ and HIV+ individuals, crowdsourcing all tools and materials for people of all ages and abilities to develop skills, share resources, and create affirming garments in sustainable ways.
• Youth Off The Streets: Operates the Step Up program that supports disadvantaged young people to re-engage with their education.
• Zen Tea Lounge: The “Empowerment Through Connection” project is designed to build mentally healthy and resilient communities by empowering survivors of domestic violence.

New Zealand

• Big Brothers Big Sisters Christchurch: Big Brothers Big Sisters Christchurch is a children’s charity providing life-changing one-to-one mentoring for children facing barriers and experiencing adversity due to circumstances beyond their control.
• Dementia Wellington: The Staying Active program aims to combat social isolation and enables people with dementia to remain connected and engaged in their community.
• Endangered Species Foundation: The Drains are Streams project is dedicated to conserving New Zealand’s freshwater ecosystems, focusing on the endangered native freshwater species.
• Graeme Dingle Foundation Aukland: The Kiwi Can programme focuses on early intervention teaching life skills and values, delivered to high EQI Primary and Intermediate schools by trained Kiwi Can Leaders with every child attending once a week throughout the school year.
• Just Move Charitable Health Trust: The From the Couch Program is a 12 week exercise and lifestyle change program designed as a step towards wellness for underserved communities struggling with obesity in South and West Auckland.
• Louise Perkins Foundation: Provides a range of support services to improve quality of life for people in New Zealand who have been diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.
• Northcross Intermediate: The Hikoi Ki Te Taha programme at Northcross Intermediate School was provides direct and practical intervention to support the mental wellbeing of identified at-risk children, improving their behavioural and learning outcomes.
• North Shore Centres of Mutual Aid: Will run additional programs to reduce isolation and improve the mental health of older adults.
• Oke Charity: Cultivates a love for learning and healthy living in children by building school gardens throughout Aotearoa.
• Parents of Vision Impaired: The grant will provide financial assistance to those hoping to attend their Parent Conference, to be held in October 2025 in Auckland. The parent conference is designed to meet the needs of our parents/whānau of blind, deafblind and vision impaired children.
• The Kindness Collective Foundation: Their Everyday Essentials programme supports children and their families living in poverty with day-to-day essentials during times of hardship.
• Visionwest Community Trust: Visionwest’s qualified counsellors and supervised interns will work one-to-one with Senior clients to help them identify issues, set goals and provide a safe therapeutic space to talk.
• Wingspan Trust: The SUPA SAVVIES initiative is a 13-week facilitated programme designed to foster social connection to protect against isolation and depression among older adults in our community who live independently.

About Bupa Asia Pacific

Bupa is an international healthcare group which has been committed to a purpose of helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives and making a better world for more than 75 years.

Bupa Asia Pacific operates in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, supporting about 7.3 million customers through a broad range of health and care services including health insurance, aged care, dental, medical, optical and hearing services.

Employing more than 22,000 people in the region, we believe that we can make a real difference to the lives of customers through our values, purpose and the way that we deliver personalised care.

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