Clubs in the Central West Committed to Supporting Young People

With youth crime rates on the rise in NSW, supporting services that keep young people engaged has never been more important – and clubs are stepping up to help fund vital services through the ClubGRANTS scheme.

Both Bathurst RSL and Bathers Panthers have come together to support Boys to the Bush, a charity which provides one-on-one mentoring to young boys to help them to grow into great young men, and ultimately become leaders in their community.

“We support Boys to the Bush because they are supporting our local youth,” Panthers Bathurst General Manager Mark Burns says in the ClubGRANTS advertisement.

“The ClubGRANTS scheme is extremely crucial to Bathurst, it keeps money in town, it keeps it in our local communities and enables us to support the local communities that need it most.”

Dubbo RSL has been a long-term supporter of the Dubbo Neighbourhood Centre, a charitable organisation which provides a variety of community services that assist children and families.

Through the ClubGRANTS program, the Club has contributed over $150,000 in the past five years, with $30,000 in funding provided in the last year alone.

“Dubbo RSL is really proud to support the Dubbo Neighbourhood Centre, it’s important that our community has these sorts of facilities for our youth to go to for any support and help they may need,” says Rebecca Zaia, Assistant Manager at Dubbo RSL.

And in Orange, the Orange Ex-Services’ Club is working closely with the Clontarf Foundation, a community organisation which aims to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men.

“Orange Ex-Services’ Club and the Clontarf Foundation have a longstanding relationship, and it’s great to be involved with the community and such an important endeavour,” says Orange Ex-Services’ Club CEO Nathan Kelly.

“We really appreciate the work that the Clontarf Foundation do in keeping young Indigenous students engaged and providing structure in their lives as they navigate their teenage years.”

The great work that these clubs do in their communities is being showcased in three 30-second videos which will be shown in and around these regional NSW towns. The videos will appear on Broadcast Video On Demand (BVOD), pre-roll video, YouTube and social media.

This campaign is just one of the many examples of NSW clubs supporting charities and community organisations through the ClubGRANTS program. More advertising campaigns will be live over the coming months.

ClubGRANTS is one of Australia’s largest and most established grant programs and is a partnership between ClubsNSW and the NSW Government. It commenced in 1998 to formalise the longstanding practice of clubs responding and contributing to local community needs.  

In the past 12 months, a record $121 million in financial support for community services, projects and programs was provided through the ClubGRANTS program — that figure exceeded the mandatory contribution required under the ClubGRANTS Guidelines by over $50 million.  

If you have a ClubGRANTS story you want to highlight, email [email protected].