Announcing our 2026 Grants for Collaboration recipients
We are delighted to announce the eight local initiatives receiving support through our 2026 Grants for Collaboration, bringing organisations and people together around shared priorities across the City of Port Phillip.
From community gardens and affordable food to First Nations culture, arts and creativity, housing, wellbeing and climate action, our 2026 grant recipients show just how much is possible when local people, organisations and ideas come together in our community.
Local organisations and leaders know their communities and the challenges they face. Our grants back them to work together, making local knowledge more powerful and involving more people in addressing local challenges.
Our intent with this grant round is to strengthen the resilience, sustainability, and advocacy power of local community organisations and leaders in a tough environment, while engaging the community in solving local problems and backing bold, innovative ideas.
Following 32 applications, seven projects will receive $65,000 directly through our Grants for Collaboration. An eighth project, Jewish Museum to You, brings together the Jewish Museum of Australia and Jewish Care and will receive close to $10,000 in funding through Southside Community Foundation and Weaving Connections, a nationwide initiative on ageing well facilitated by community foundations with the support of the JO & JR Wicking Trust.
The process also helped us connect strong local ideas with a broader network of philanthropic support, with applications being supported through funding partners where we were able to identify a good fit.
We’re incredibly proud to support the people and organisations bringing these ideas to life across Southside.
City of Port Phillip Arts Collective (COPPAC): Building the Infrastructure for Collaboration
COPPAC will build the infrastructure its network of 14 local arts organisations needs to collaborate more effectively, including dedicated coordination, a shared digital platform, sector forums and professional development.
Artists for Kids Culture + Balert Yirramboi: Culture and Creation: Young Artists, Big Stories
Artists for Kids Culture and Balert Yirramboi will create opportunities for young people aged 12 to 17 to connect with Boonwurrung culture, Country and creativity through immersive, hands-on cultural and creative experiences.
Port Phillip EcoCentre: Collective Capacity-building for Reconnection and Resilience
Port Phillip EcoCentre will use its new community hub to deliver collaboratively hosted climate and resilience activities that reconnect people with neighbours and nature and build practical and social climate resilience.
Heartscapes: Expanding Melbourne Pollinator Corridor Volunteer Program
Heartscapes will expand the volunteer network behind the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor, bringing residents, volunteers and communities together to create and care for gardens designed to support native pollinating insects.
Port Phillip Community Group: Sustainable Food: Port Phillip Grocer
Port Phillip Community Group will work with The Community Grocer and local food security organisations to explore and pilot a community grocery model that improves access to affordable, healthy food while building community connection.
St Kilda Community Housing + Cultivating Community: Growing Together: Activating Community Through Shared Gardens
St Kilda Community Housing and Cultivating Community will work with residents across four properties to co-design, establish and care for shared gardens, building practical skills, stronger relationships and social connection.
Southside Justice: Partners in Place: Collective Voice
Southside Justice will bring local community service organisations together to strengthen relationships, develop shared priorities and build the foundations for a stronger collective voice on issues affecting the Port Phillip community.
Jewish Museum of Australia + Jewish Care: Jewish Museum to You
The Jewish Museum of Australia and Jewish Care will bring museum-led cultural experiences to older adults at Jewish Care St Kilda, using objects, photographs, music, storytelling and creative activities to strengthen cultural connection, social wellbeing and belonging.
From conversation to collaboration
Our 2026 Grants for Collaboration are the second stage of our two-year pilot grants program, shaped directly by what the community told us mattered most through our 2025 Grants for Conversation.
Our 2025 Grants for Conversation brought together up to 60 local organisations to explore what they were seeing, what was needed and where working together could make a difference.
Those conversations helped shape our Roadmap for Southside. The 2026 grants take the next step, backing local organisations to turn some of that knowledge, connection and shared thinking into action.
More than 60 organisations were invited to apply, with the opportunity also shared through local and philanthropic networks.
Backing local solutions through collaboration
Our Chair John Spierings said it was exciting to see local organisations taking the next step together, with the grants supporting the people, ideas and collaborations working to create lasting change across Southside.
“The ideas are already here. Local organisations know their communities, they know what’s needed and, more often than not, they want to work together. But what’s missing is the funding or the connection to make change. That’s what these grants are about, backing local organisations to take that next step together.”
Over the coming months, we’ll share more from the people and organisations behind these projects: what they’re doing, what they’re learning and how they’re working together across Southside.
