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Spark Grant

Spark Grants create time and space to work deeply with your community to explore opportunities and ideas to support preventative approaches for mental health and better wellbeing.

Spark Grant Information Pack

This information pack details how to prepare and submit your application.

Our Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing

This document shares what informs the Foundation’s approach and intentions for providing funding and working towards better preventative approaches for mental health and conditions for wellbeing for South Australians.
Spark Grants are open for application through Grant Toolbox
Closing 5pm 14 April

Spark grants are an opportunity to imagine and learn with community about what is really wanted and important from their perspective for their own mental health and wellbeing, and what it could look like to bring that to life.

Our hope is that through a Spark Grant we will be supporting partners to:

  • Invest in learning with community about what is currently not known, recognised, provided, funded or supported

  • Move past solutions or responses, and develop a deeper understanding of what preventative mental health and wellbeing means to your community and context

  • Build a foundation of community informed evidence and insights about what is important, wanted, and the different ways community can take this forward

  • Explore possibilities and potential by being open to taking different approaches and changing direction as you learn along the way

If you are wondering if a Spark Grant might be right for you, consider the below and then reach out for a chat or attend our information session. 

  • Are you a group or organisation that works closely with a community group?

  • Are you passionate about creating change with community and open to listening and learning?

  • Are you inspired by a different way to build preventative mental health and wellbeing?

Any organisation or group can apply for a Spark Grant that are working with and for the sole benefit of a South Australian community.

Six partners are selected each round to each receive a $40,000 grant to support their work. You can gain an insight into the work of our past partners below.

The Information Pack provides instructions on what to include in an application, and there are a range of support resources, facts, and opportunities to connect available on this page.

We are here to help and would love to hear from you, find our grant manager’s dedicated time below or reach out with a time that works for you.


Spark was about listening to people and learning from their lived experiences. We gained insight from people about what they see as the challenges, as well as the opportunities, not to validate our own ideas.

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Flip through our Support Resources

Who do you fund?

Spark Grants are open to the public and we support values and purpose-aligned organisations that partner and work with community within South Australia.
We work to make our grant processes and programs accessible and beneficial to the full diversity of our community in South Australia. We encourage  applications from new organisations, and community led organisations such as First Nations, LGBQTIA+, Multicultural, People with a disability, Lived Experience or diversity of age, learn more here.
If you have any concerns or questions about the process or your eligibility please don't hesitate to reach out and we will do our best to support your application.


What types of ideas do you fund?

Spark Grants are designed to support exploring and building an understanding with community about what preventative, strength and asset based opportunities would be beneficial for mental health and wellbeing. Proposals that are contextual, community focussed, and seek to develop different ways of approaching preventative mental health will be prioritised. You can read more about our approach to mental health & wellbeing.

What do you mean by community?

We invite applicants to share how they define what community means to them. We understand that this might include one or many ways in which a group of people recognise that they are in connection through a shared identity, experience, purpose, belonging or location.

Can I apply if we aren’t a South Australian organisation?

Our South Australian eligibility requirement is determined by whether your application demonstrates that the work will occur and be to the primary benefit of a South Australian community group. You can be a national organisation, or not have a central office in SA if the above is evident through your application.

Can I submit more than one application as an organisation?

We recognise that some organisations are made up of lots of departments and people doing great work. We will accept more than one application from an organisation but we encourage you to check in with us and coordinate internally to put forward your most aligned opportunities.

Is Spark only for new work or ideas?

Spark Grants aren’t intended to provide ongoing funding for existing programs or services, or run a service, rather they are an opportunity to explore and develop a deeper understanding with community. However, the foundations of your idea might be inspired from something that exists elsewhere or be informed by previous engagement with your community, but the focus of your proposal should be about learning from community about what could be possible.

Does mental health and wellbeing have to be core business for our organisation?

We understand the intersectional nature of mental health and wellbeing, so it doesn’t need to be the core business of your organisation - just your proposal.

Does mental health and wellbeing have to the main focus of our application?

We value that approaches to building mental health and wellbeing are likely to look at shifting or engaging with social, economic, cultural and political determinants. Our assessment process will prioritise proposals where the primary focus is building better mental health and wellbeing, rather than being an additional benefit.

Do you fund research?

We support that Universities and Research organisations can play an important role in supporting community to develop insights into preventative approaches but that this must be grounded in community ownership and outcomes. In honour of this the community group engaged in the Spark Grant must be the lead applicant with the University as a supporting partner.


Do you fund service or program development?

We understand that developing new ideas or projects outside current commissioning opportunities can be challenging to fund. We are happy to support a Spark grant that could inform new service offerings where there is existing community support for the idea, community will be involved in the project governance and delivery, and there is a true openness for the learning and output to be directed by and for community as the primary focus. Applications for iterations or expansion of existing services, or pilot programs will not be supported through Spark.

How do I apply?

During 3 March to 5pm Monday 14 April  your application can be submitted online through Grant Toolbox; https://fayfullerfoundation.granttoolbox.com.au/.

We recommend registering a week before the due date if you haven't used this platform before and there is a support video available on this webpage. If you can’t access this platform, have questions, or would like support in completing an application, please get in touch!


Do you accept applications or changes after the closing date?

We understand that unfortunate circumstances, and technology crashes happen, and as such will have a 24 hour grace period to receive late applications or components.

Miish33 (Happiness) Through Music

Build community capacity through connection, learning, and the  power of music.

Mariposa Trails, spent time with their community building relationships and listening to what is needed for appropriate, culturally informed approaches and spaces that create connection to people, culture, strength and safety to share and seek support.

They held community learning circles, connected through music and dance, and developed a working party where community members tested and developed new ideas and resources with their community.

Mariposa Trails are currently a Discovery Grant Partner expanding on their learning form Spark to develop with community three components Safe space, Peer to Peer Practice, and Growth of a community based movement.

The Best Of Our Culture. Steps To The Future

Strengthen sense of identity, family, kinship and culture.

Umoona Tjutagku Health Service intend to strengthen community resilience by supporting opportunities for members of their community to collect knowledge of their heritage, culture, language, and ceremonies.

Through tracing their family trees, knowing who they are connected to, strengthening ties to the land and capturing the stories, the dance and the language of the elders they hope to strengthen cultural pride within their local Aboriginal community and support a sense of belonging and social and emotional wellbeing.

Building Together Tumby Bay

Demonstrate how capacity building can create a strong and healthy community network.

Beacon of Hope explored with their community opportunities and ideas that will support preventative & sustainable approaches to improve mental wellbeing and what is needed for everyone in their community to thrive. 

  They spent time in schools, with community groups, and in individual conversations to develop community insights about what people are experiencing, and the role they could play in bringing community together for improved wellbeing. 

  Beacon of Hope are establishing a safe and welcoming community space, and working with their whole community to build a culture of connection, support, acceptance and belonging across their whole community.

 

 

The Rainbow Dog: A Positive Mental Health Initiative For The LGBTI+ Community

Capacity building, connecting Rainbow Community, identifying positive mental health strategies.

Rainbow Hub SA listened to the stories of LGBTI+ elders who experienced a sudden illness and or a life changing event to explore the impact of this on their mental wellbeing and sense of identity.

This project initially managed by the Rainbow Hub as part of COTA SA, was transferred to the newly independent Rainbow Hub SA in July 2024 for the project’s completion. Rainbow Hub SA wishes to acknowledge and thank COTA SA for all their support.

Through this journey, Rainbow Hub SA developed an understanding of the many different ways this is personally experienced and the impact that past personal experiences, connection with community, and the quality and inclusion of health care make on people’s support and wellbeing during this time.

Rainbow Hub SA has a strong community consultative group who have journeyed and advised since the project inception and are continuing to engage to take action to build new connections, resources and support informed by their shared learnings and experiences.

Exploring prevention and wellbeing with Parents for Parents

Capacity building, empowering, connecting, educating and supporting parents/carers.

Parents for Parents worked to identify opportunities to recognise strengths in families and the vital role that parents play in the wellbeing of their children.  

Aiming to reduce harm from poor mental health/suicidality in South Australian children/young people, Parents for Parents sought to better understand what successful preventative approaches to mental health across all stages could look like, within a context of parents/carers 'first fitting their own oxygen masks'.

Now And Beyond

Build a deeper understanding and organisational capability with their community.

Youth Options spent time listening and learning with their community to understand what preventative supports they could develop and provide that would help young people understand and learn to manage their own wellbeing independently.

Youth Options are continuing to build on what they heard during Spark to develop a suite of learnings, tools, and resources that young people can develop and implement during their time with them that build the conditions for wellbeing.


Our 2021 Spark Partners

Breakthrough Mental Health worked with community to understand and unravel the minefield of accessing mental health support when experiencing distress and identify what might be missing in terms of current pathways and responses.

They heard that current pathways to accessing support aren’t meeting the diversity of people, experiences, their geographical location and needs and that there are barriers to access such as timeliness, the provision of clear, simple or culturally informed information, or local responses. The pathways that do exist aren’t presenting people with adequate choice, agency or opportunities for preventative, person centred, and compassionate support.

They’re looking to explore sector partnerships and work with community and people with lived experience to understand how accessibility, information, and options can be developed in a context that is supportive, respectful, simple, and compassionate and doesn’t provide further harm and distress.

Murray Mallee GP Network explored the viability of a social enterprise for the purpose of creating opportunities for meaningful activity and connection to address social determinants contributing to poor mental health for their community.

Murray Mallee GP Network were able to use their Spark Grant to boldly explore and test ideas that were coming from community in a way that respected grassroots knowledge and personal experience. One of their major learnings was that for community members being asked, listened to, and actively involved in shaping what they would like to see for themselves and their community felt powerful and validating. During their Spark journey they learnt not only that community supported the idea but wanted to be involved and contribute to building a community place of connection, purpose and most importantly, hope.

During Spark they unearthed what was most important to get right for its success, developed a basic operating model, gathered community and stakeholder support, and learnt from other social enterprises. They are looking to get started and build their social enterprise over time.

Talk Out Loud worked alongside young people to explore and design what resources might support them during times of emotional crisis or distress.

During Spark, Talk Out Loud engaged with their community and with healthcare professionals and heard that there is a strong calling from all perspectives for young people to be provided with supportive, empowering information, and hope and connection to those who can listen and walk alongside them through recovery. Talk Out Loud heard that what this looks like is different for different people, but that connection is vital. The support offered by organisations such as Talk Out Loud is in high demand, and it is going to take a networked approach to shift how we support young people in emotional crisis, rather than a simple solution within any one organisation’s control.

Talk Out Loud are building on what they heard to expand their offerings, locations, and ways of connecting with young people to provide hope in moments of distress. They are working alongside their broader community and networks to explore what it takes to shift from service or solutions, to empowering, connected, and strengths based offerings.

St. John's Youth Services (SJYS) worked alongside those accessing their services to explore what they would like to see offered as pathways to support their wellbeing.

In partnership with the Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network (LELAN) they learned from the young people accessing their services about what opportunities, conditions and relationships would support their holistic wellbeing. These insights informed eight recommendations ranging from greater opportunities to socially connect, the nature of their relationship with workers and the desire for services to be by, for, and with young people.

SJYS are now looking to explore how they might incorporate some of these ideas and co-create them with their community throughout all levels of their organisation.

Tribes United Fitness engaged with community members to design a strength-based approach for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to come together on Country to reclaim power and heal.

Through Spark, Rikki Wilson of Tribes Unites Fitness nurtured safe spaces and drew on the strengths already present in community to delve deeper, past labels, to listen and build a way of being, connecting and learning together with people from all different roles and life experiences.

Together, they shared through stories and conversations what heals and provides strength and created opportunities for community to own and author the path forward.

Through this listening a model was developed in a cultural way, in language, that community can identify themselves in. The program covers history, language, and dreaming stories, to be connected to culture and belonging. Tribes United Fitness are developing this model and offering to run healing retreats. They’re also looking at how it can inform or be adapted into mainstream services to provide safe and culturally informed support.


Plaza Youth Centre engaged with their community to determine new pathways for connection that address the root causes of social isolation experienced by young people in Whyalla and Port Augusta.

During Spark, young people shared that they want opportunities and safe places to spend time and have fun without being defined by labels or having to be a certain way. By creating avenues to be heard, peer leaders were nurtured and developed events, programs and activities for young people with huge turn outs. By connecting with broader community groups, it was heard that people want to support young people but didn't know how - Plaza Youth has weaving together connections and avenues for the community to support young people in ways they want to be supported. 

Plaza Youth has gone on to receive government funding to support their outreach, and community activities and to further develop their youth peer leader program. Their young leaders are continuing furthering their education, and developing confidence to better support and advocate for other young people in their community.

2021 Spark Grant Accountability Report

When designing the 2021 Spark Grant program and application process we were trying to do things differently, as a partner and as a funder. This report shares our intentions, the process undertaken and our reflections and learnings.
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©Fay Fuller Foundation
We acknowledge the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and the traditional custodians and owners of the lands on which we work and live across Australia. We pay our respects to Elders of the past, present and into the future. We are committed to collaboration that furthers self-determination, as we go forward, we will continue to listen, learn, and be allies for a healing future.