What is the Inner North Community Foundation?

The Inner North Community Foundation is a local not-for-profit organisation funding creative and innovative employment related programs that create greater access to employment for disadvantaged local people.

We fund programs based across the inner north of Melbourne within the municipalities of Darebin, Moreland, and Yarra.

We are a perpetual resource for our community. Donations improve social outcomes for a diverse range of local people and causes long after they are made. The donations build a capital base that is invested and income from these investments is returned to the community through grant rounds, like the Pathways to Employment Fund grant round.

The Inner North Community Foundation uses its grant-making expertise and in-depth knowledge of community issues to fund community projects. Through our funded projects we reach many people beyond our immediate grantees each year - whether it be through an Anti Racism Action Band performance in Melbourne's Federation Square, a Sprout Community Market in Thornbury, or a function catered for by the CERES Seven Stars.

What does the Inner North Community Foundation do?

The issue of high unemployment affects a vast, culturally and linguistically diverse population in Melbourne's inner north (a region that is home to over 350,000 residents).

The Inner North Community Foundation breaks down barriers to employment for disadvantaged local people in Melbourne's inner northern communities.

Barriers that local people face on a daily basis include intellectual disabilities, living with mental illness, backgrounds of generational unemployment, migrant or refugee status, language barriers, homelessness, and many other issues.

While we have assisted hundreds of local people to break down their barriers which has increased their job-readiness, work and life skills, self-esteem, confidence, and industry and support networks, greater access to employment still remains an issue for many more local people in our region.

How will the funding be used?

Since the Inner North Community Foundation was established in 2007, we have funded projects that have helped over 1,000 disadvantaged local people develop necessary work and life skills to help them get jobs, distributed $789,766 in funding to 54 community programs, and advocated for philanthropy at a community level in our local region.

Your donations will be used to support many wonderful projects with outcomes like:

• Providing opportunities for asylum seekers to enter the world of retail, fashion, and hospitality through preparatory courses
• Assisting women who wish to exit the sex industry to find stable employment and connect with workplaces free of discrimination and stigma

• Developing aspiring young leaders, many of whom are young disadvantaged women from minority backgrounds
• Supporting people living with a mental illness in setting up micro enterprises to generate an income
• Encouraging ex-offenders to participate in mobile bicycle mechanic workshops, creating partnerships with the local community and local businesses

Our Pathways to Employment Fund aims to continue helping hundreds more local people to bridge the gap between unemployment and financial and social wellbeing. To learn more about our Foundation visit  www.innernorthfoundation.org.au, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter @innernorthcf

As a not-for-profit organisation, the Inner North Community Foundation remains dependent on and extremely grateful for your support.