Sydney Water: Community Grants Program (Australia)

Deadline: 30-Jun-21

Sydney Water is calling for ideas on improving water knowledge in Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, and the Illawarra to provide value to Sydney Water, its customers, partners, and the community, by aligning with the following themes and project types to increase water knowledge in the community.

Themes

Grassroots advocacy: Build a thriving, sustainable and liveable city through partnerships, collaboration, and/or place-based learning where the community can engage in open conversation.
Water for the future: Equip communities with the knowledge to participate in decision making on their future services by improving understanding of the urban water cycle.
Liveable cities: Build a resilient and water sensitive Greater Sydney through projects that support healthy waterways, cool green open spaces, and deliver health, cultural, social, economic, heritage and/or environmental benefits.

Funding Information

Sydney Water’s Community Water Literacy Grants Program (Program) will offer grants of up to $10,000 per project to improve water knowledge in their community.

Types of projects funded

Water literacy projects could include (but are not limited to):
- Placemaking projects: cooling areas; resilience and addressing climate change; increasing natural shade; reducing litter and stormwater runoff; and habitat creation
- Citizen science projects
- Arts and cultural activities
- Knowledge exchange about water from cross cultural and/or intergenerational perspectives
- Education projects to improve environmental and/or health outcomes and save water (e.g. preventing fatbergs or the flushing of wet wipes, ideas for saving water)
- Reducing bottled water use and increasing tap water consumption.
The collaborations between Sydney Water and grant awardees may be used to inform future education and grants programs.

Eligibility Criteria

The Program is open to (but not limited to) the following groups within the Sydney Water’s area of operation (Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra):
- Not for profit organisations
- Social enterprise groups
- Social groups and sports clubs
- Playgroup organisations
- Universities and research institutions who can facilitate grassroots water literacy and research with community groups within the Sydney Water area of operations
- Councils who can facilitate grassroots water literacy and research with community groups within the Sydney Water area of operations
- Public health or allied health body and housing co-operatives who can facilitate grassroots water literacy and research with community groups within the Sydney Water area of operations
- Schools and government funded technical colleges
- Artists
- Authors
The Applicant must have an Australian Business Number (ABN) or be registered as a notfor-profit organisation.
The following people/groups cannot apply:
- Sydney Water employees/contractors or their immediate family members and friends
- Organisations that in Sydney Water’s opinion, expose Sydney Water to a reputational risk
- Organisations with links to negative impacts on the environment or health
- Anyone else or any other proposed projects or initiatives that Sydney Water considers inappropriate or not aligned with its business objectives, values or policies.