Trustees of The Readings Foundation, including writer Helen Garner, Readings staff and donor Peter Donoghue (ex-managing director of Publishers John Wiley Australia) met in late November to award a record number of grants on behalf of the Readings Foundation. Funding totalling $62,500 will be granted to seven organisations to support projects that benefit literacy, community and the arts in Victoria.

We’d like to congratulate the following 2011 Readings Foundation grant recipients…

Western Suburbs Indigenous Gathering Place – $20,000
To run an adult literacy component within the ongoing Healing Program that will help participants become employment ready and achieve much-needed self-esteem.

Kids Under Cover – $15,000
To award 15 Kids Under Cover educational scholarships of $1,000 to disadvantaged students undertaking job training or studies in either Years 11 or 12.

SouthCare Community Care – $10,000
To support a tutoring club providing literacy support for primary school aged children of new migrant families, primarily from Sudan.

Australian Poetry Centre – $6,000
To support The Omnibus Mobile Poetry Library – a touring interactive exhibition of Australian poetry books, artwork and ephemera, providing an opportunity for people in regional Victoria to write, read and appreciate poetry.

Victorian Writers Centre – $5,100
To award one residential and three studio fellowships to Victorian authors to enable them to research and/or complete new work.

Emerging Writers Festival – $4,000
To create a regional programming stream at the 2011 Emerging Writers Festival

Good Beginnings Australia – $2,400
To purchase books for babies’ first birthdays that will assist socially and economically disadvantaged families in the Doveton/Dandenong and Latrobe areas and confirm the importance of reading and literacy in children’s lives.

In 2011 the Readings Foundation will also support the Unpublished Manuscript Fellowship. A $10,000 stipend provided by the foundation will give two authors the chance to write for three months at the Wheeler Centre. The inaugural recipients of the fellowship are Michelle Aung Thin and Andrew Nette, both runners-up in this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards category for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer.

Readings prides itself on a long history of supporting local causes and the Readings Foundation will continue to support Sacred Heart Mission with a donation of $6,000 and the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s HIPPY (Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters) program with a donation of $7,500 in the coming year.

The Readings Foundation was established by Readings Managing director Mark Rubbo in 2008 to support Victorian individuals and organisations that wish to further the development of literacy, community work and the arts. Money is raised from Readings profits, individual donations and most importantly from Readings customers who make donations in return for gift wrapping.

Find out more about the Readings Foundation here.