On August 8th 410 Cafes, 18 Coffee Roasters and 1000’s of coffee drinkers and supporters came together to participate in CafeSmart 2014. Together we raised a record breaking $120,263 (up from $83,950 in 2013) to fund local grassroots homeless projects.
The outstanding efforts of everyone involved has resulted in 91 small community grants supporting a wide variety of local responses to help people who are homeless or at risk. Where possible, grants have been made in communities which supported the event – keeping it local. Grants reflect the diverse responses to homelessness and prevention including a new mobile laundry in Brisbane, legal advice in Canberra, a mobile meals van in Albury, a Christmas dinner in Sydney, food rescue in Tasmania, a nappy service in Adelaide, support for women in the criminal justice system in Melbourne, supporting homeless youth in Perth – and many, many more.
Check out the State grants information here: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, SA, VIC, WA
Here’s what one organisation said on hearing the news they had been successful…
“This is great news! Thank you so much for your support.
These funds mean that we can host really special afternoon for up to 100 people, provide a delicious, nutritious meal, and most importantly reinforce a sense of celebration, community and stability during what can be a very challenging time of year for many people.”
Naomi Webb
(Acting State Operations Manager – SA & NT | The Big Issue)
Here are the break downs:
| STATE | # GRANTS | GRANTS $ |
| ACT | 2 | $2,000.00 |
| NSW | 24 | $38,090.00 |
| NT | 1 | $500.00 |
| QLD | 23 | $14,600.00 |
| SA | 5 | $4,268.00 |
| TAS | 1 | $2,414.00 |
| VIS | 30 | $53,391.00 |
| WA | 5 | $5,000.00 |
| TOTAL | 91 | $120,263.00 |
Adam Robinson CEO of StreetSmart Australia said “CafeSmart is a real community event involving over 450 businesses and 1000’s of coffee drinkers, so it’s always rewarding to see the outcomes that our fundraising achieves and these 91 small community grants will be put to great use. Many of the organisations supported struggle to fundraise and just don’t have the resources to reach out to the community for the support they need – so we have reached out to them and made it a simple process to secure funding. The grants not only support them with $s but also that the community is behind them and that their work matters.”
Adam continued “What I like is that funds raised stay local, whenever possible. For example the team at YELO in Perth (our 2014 champs pictured above) helped to fund projects at Youth Futures, Footpath Library and Balga Youth, which is a great outcome for the local community.”
The community grants were made possible by the involvement of our cafe and roaster partners and coffee drinkers around the country, so thank you.
Thanks also to our main sponsor Vitasoy, our media supporters including Broadsheet, Beanscene, GRAM, YELP, Beanhunter, The Weekend Edition, Clear Design and PR support from Stellar Concepts.
We’re looking forward to the 2015 event, if you are interested in getting involved email Adam onadam@streetsmartaustralia.org.
