Peter Gutwein,Premier
In great news for Tasmania’s children and young people, funding for the Premier’s Fund for Children and Young People will double to $1 million this year.
We will also expand the program to provide even more opportunities over the next two years, with two more grant rounds of $500,000 each in 2023 and 2024 – for a total of $2 million for recreational and social infrastructure and programs across Tasmania specifically for children and young people.
There has been enormous interest in the Fund since it opened for applications in November last year, fulfilling a key action from Tasmania’s first ever comprehensive, long-term, whole of government Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy.
There were 89 proposals received from community organisations, local councils and school parent and friends associations across all regions of the State, with over half from regional and rural areas of Tasmania.
A panel is currently being convened to assess the grant proposals with successful recipients to be announced next month, and doubling the funding will allow even more applications to be funded, to the benefit of children and young people across the State.
The fund is an important part of our $100 million, four-year investment to deliver the strategy that provides a long-term direction for government to improve the wellbeing outcomes for Tasmanian children and young people.
The fund is a direct outcome of feedback received from children and young people during the consultation period, and will create more recreational and social opportunities for children and young people, in the areas where they live.
This includes greater opportunities for after school sports, skate parks in our regions, or delivering activities for kids to have fun, such as youth hubs or hobby clubs.
Work is also now well underway on the 65 actions within the four-year Action Plan, with many already actioned.
We will report annually on the Strategy to outline our progress against all actions and principles, and I look forward to providing further updates on key projects as the year progresses.
