Workers Lifestyle Group has made a strong submission to the NSW Government review of ClubGRANTS.
The ClubGRANTS scheme is one way registered clubs like Blacktown Workers and Blacktown Sports contribute directly to our community, sporting groups and charities. Submissions closed on 18 March 2024.
“Our submission calls on the State Government to support and strengthen the most important element of ClubGRANTS, which is local decision-making about the distribution of grants to the community,” said Workers Lifestyle Group CEO Morgan Stewart.
ClubGRANTS is a locally focused and administered grants program in which funding decisions are made by local people who know their communities.
Under the ClubGRANTS system, Workers Blacktown and Workers Sports distribute Category 1 grants to community projects, as recommended by the Blacktown Local Committee (comprising Blacktown City Council and representatives of community interests and local clubs).
Under Category 2, WLG clubs receive applications from community groups and make grants directly to them.
ClubGRANTS is accessible to small, volunteer-run organisations that are not able to obtain funding through other programs.
For the first time last year, ClubsNSW published all 13,000 grants decisions statewide, highlighting the substantial social and community impacts. WLG considers this transparency is essential for ClubGRANTS credibility.
“We believe that the system is not perfect and should be regularly reviewed. We believe that most criticism of ClubsGRANTS, however, is mostly and unfortunately comes from some who appear less concerned about Clubs supporting local community organisations and more concerned about running down the registered club industry at any opportunity.
“Be that as it may, Workers Lifestyle Group continues to be an authentic corporate citizen, with our 55,000-plus members, our staff and our directors all being very proud of our community funding, support and engagement.”
In the year to August 31, Workers Blacktown and Workers Sport contributed $962,748 through ClubGRANTS in cash grants (78% of the total) or in-kind support, to 62 organisations.
All the recipients are local community groups, or they have projects in the Blacktown area.
Including ClubGRANTS, Workers annually contributes approximately $3 million of value to the community in grants, facilities and benefits. It supports more than 100 community and sporting groups, charities and schools.
Workers run one of the largest private sporting complexes in Australia, provide sporting facilities for 7,000 Western Sydney children and adult competitors, and support 29 sporting and leisure groups for you to enjoy.
Workers Lifestyle Group are funding a major health campaign, Western Sydney Changing Diabetes, to the tune of $500,000 over 5 years and has further committed an additional $500,000 toward combating domestic and family violence in our community.
We support the words of Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris in announcing the review: “Registered clubs are part of the social fabric in local communities across NSW, and the ClubGRANTS scheme helps to provide vital local services, projects and infrastructure.”