Melbourne charities will share in more than $3 million in grants from Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation through this year’s special COVID-19 program. 

The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Chief Executive Officer Dr Catherine Brown, OAM said the Foundation has always been committed to assisting the city through tough social times since it was established in 1923. 

However, she admitted that COVID -19 is “undoubtedly a unique challenge.” 

“Many of the grants came as a response to an urgent request for help while others will have long term ramifications for the wider community,” Brown said. 

The largest grant of $250,000 was provided to the Alfred Hospital’s Department of Infectious Diseases for research into the effect of COVID-19 on Victoria’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. 

Monash University received $100,000 for developing standards to assist frontline medical staff including respiratory specialists and others working in ICU. 

Among a diverse range of 31 recipients, Abbotsford Convent, which was one of the first arts and cultural organisations to close because of COVID -19 received $50,000 as rent relief for its 126 tenants. The Collingwood Children’s Farm also received a similar amount to assist in its recovery. 

Meanwhile, Foodbank Victoria received $15,00 for food relief while online organisations such as Gather My Crew, Justice Connect and Infoxchange also received grants to offer housing, employment and wellbeing assistance. 

The Foundation is matching donations to Foodbank up to $50,000. 

Grants were made to several charitable organisations to address domestic violence while Wise Employment was also funded to assist people with mental illness to build skills and self-confidence to gain employment.

Tradeswomen Australia received a grant of $75,000 to train and assist women to gain employment in the infrastructure and construction sector as the economy recovers.

Brown said the Foundation, which is one of Australia’s leading philanthropic organisations and one of the largest independent community foundations, supports Melbourne charities by distributing more than $12 million in grants each year.

“We will open our Innovation grants round in mid-January, and we are currently working with charities on projects which respond to economic and social support and grow opportunities for job creation as we recover from COVID-19,” Brown said.

“This includes affordable housing, clean energy and social enterprise. We are also working on heatwave disaster preparedness projects as we head into summer,” she said.