Violet Vines Marshman Centre Partnership Funding
Community organisations can apply for grants of up to $50,000 to partner with the VVMC on small projects that improve health and wellbeing for people living in rural areas.
The next round of grant opportunities will be announced here in the coming months.
Partnership funding is designed to support projects that directly improve the health and well-being of people living in rural and remote areas. Projects will primarily be assessed on direct community benefit. This includes the number of people benefiting and the extent of the health and wellbeing benefits for the communities involved. Proposals must align with the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research’s core mission: Transforming rural health outcomes through research, collaboration and community engagement.
On completion, projects will need to report upon the benefits delivered and hence contribute to better understanding of practices that make real-world community impact.
Funding is available to a wide range of organisations, including health and social services, local councils, schools and community groups. Importantly, the funds are not intended to replace regular operational expenses; applicants should clearly outline the additional, direct benefits their projects will bring to their communities.
To ensure strong community engagement, proposals must demonstrate how they will match funds from the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research Partnership Funding Stream.
Aims
Primary
- Directly improve the health and wellbeing of rural and remote communities by supporting impactful, short-term projects.
Secondary
- Proof of concept - Enable locally developed concepts and ideas to be developed and tested in real-world rural community settings.
- Pilot demonstration - Provide a factual basis for broader [for example government funded] roll out into rural communities.
For all enquiries relating to partnership funding, please email violet.marshman@latrobe.edu.au.
Community Partnership Grants 2025
Headspace Shepparton (GV Health)
Nature Neighbours
Nature Neighbours is a nature-based social prescription project for young people based in the Goulburn Valley. It is a direct response to reported social isolation and climate anxiety of young people, identified through past community-based and therapeutic interventions.
Loddon Mallee Public Health Unit
Energy Efficiency and Energy Literacy Workshops for Loddon Mallee Priority Populations
This project aims to address the health and wellbeing impacts of not being able to keep cool in summer and warm in winter in your home. The project aims to do this by improving energy literacy (understanding electricity and gas bills and options for energy providers), energy justice (achieving equity in the participation in the energy system, while also remediating social, economic, and health burdens on those historically harmed by the energy system) and home energy efficiency. These workshops will improve financial and health care savings through this capacity building, thus improving health and wellbeing.
Marathon Health
Waluwin Ngurambang (Healthy Country) Diabetes Education Program
This program will address the gap in access to health care for people in disadvantaged rural communities, especially First Nations people, who face disproportionate rates of diabetes and pre-diabetes compared to the general population.
Robinvale District Health Services
Healthy Together: Rural Wellness for All
This program addresses the interconnected challenges of preventable chronic disease, mental health concerns, and healthcare access barriers in the culturally diverse rural community of Robinvale and surrounds.
Mallee Track Health and Community Services
Building Wellness in the Mallee by Strengthening the Community’s Response to Mental Health Distress
This collaborative project aims to provide comprehensive capacity building and community tailored approaches to mental health distress arising from changing climatic conditions affecting a remote Mallee Community. Frost damage occurs dramatically with a very promising yield being reduced overnight, whereas drought is more foreseen. These events have placed mental health distress as an area of focus within our community.
Funded Partnership Projects in Previous Rounds
The successful applicants in our 2021 funded partnerships came from across rural Victoria and NSW. The funding was allocated to four projects across two rounds.
Round 1: Sunraysia Community Health Services, together with Ruth Hardman.
Round 2: Mildura Rural City Council, West Wimmera Health Service and Cultivate Farms.
Round 3: Echuca Regional Health and Northern District Community Health Service.
Round 4: Cohuna District Hospital, Gateway Health and Wangaratta Rural City Council
Round 5: Karen Organisation of Bendigo, Lockington and District Bush Nursing Centre and Yea and District Memorial Hospital