The Ballarat community is working together to improve community safety and tackle the root causes of crime. This is thanks to funding from the Victorian Government. 

The City of Ballarat Council received $700,000 through the government’s Empowering Communities Partnerships as part of the Building Safer Communities Program. The funding was used to set up a local Action Group. The group identify and deliver effective local solutions to crime and safety issues.

Empowering Communities Ballarat is providing better access to local services and support for:

  • LGBTIQ+ community
  • culturally diverse
  • women
  • people with disabilities
  • older adults
  • young people, and
  • Aboriginal communities.

They are also addressing crime and anti-social behaviour.

Local projects awarded funding under the initiative

The Ballarat Empowering Communities Action Group gave funding to 7 local projects as part of this initiative.

$101,000 was awarded to employ a person with a disability to advise on equality. They will also support ableism in the community by challenging:

  • community attitudes
  • behaviour, and
  • culture.

About $72,000 will deliver the LGBTIQA+ Mediate Broadcasting Project. This is to support the creation of media content which celebrates and skills the local LGBTIQA+ community. There will also be workshops to foster participation in:

  • digital content
  • creation, and
  • the associated arts. 

Tiny Pride, Auspice by the Y Ballarat, will seek to tackle discrimination via an anti-discrimination app. This will will allow people from across the City of Ballarat to capture the wide scale of discriminatory behaviours that people from LGBTIQA+ community, First Nations Community, and Intercultural Community experience in their day-to-day life in Ballarat.

About $66,000 will be spent on programs to mitigate harm and improve health, social and economic outcomes for LGBTIQA+ communities through:

  • drop-in centres during school terms, and
  • styling Workshops with specialised training for volunteers and a mobile wardrobe.

The Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre received $49,000 to develop a community consultation strategy. They will also produce programs and services to engage and develop a stronger community.

Guide Dogs Victoria received $16,000 to assist teenagers living with low vision or blindness to connect with like-minded local peers and practice safe and independent travel.

Empowering communities across Victoria

In total, Empowering Communities Partnerships are supporting 9 local government areas across the state to:

  • deliver innovative, evidence-based approaches to strengthen local partnerships, and
  • increase community cohesion and safety, as part of the delivery of government’s Crime Prevention Strategy.

More than $40 million has been invested in the Crime Prevention Strategy since 2019-20. This supports communities across Victoria to deliver effective crime prevention projects. 

Read more about our Empowering Communities Program.