The community organisations that will each receive up to $10,000 were nominated by Bupa’s people as part of the Bupa Foundation Community Grants Program which has been running since 2019.

Roger Sharp, Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer, Bupa Asia Pacific said encouraging staff to be active in the community is vital in delivering the Foundation’s mission to unite our people, customers and the community in creating a healthier world.

“While the Bupa Foundation has partnerships with large established charities such as UNICEF Australia, Kids Helpline, Conservation Volunteers Australia and Trees that Count New Zealand; we know local grass-roots organisations play a unique and important role in supporting people and their communities with their mental and physical health and achieving better environmental outcomes.

The full list of Bupa Foundation Community Grant recipients:

Australia

• Frontline Yoga: National Yoga Program for First Responders, Emergency Services and Military Veterans.
• Upper Goulburn Landcare Network: Connects rural and urban communities through education and collaboration leading to positive environmental and regeneration outcomes.
• Cancer Patients Foundation: Look Good Feel Better is a community service program aimed at teaching cancer patients how to manage appearance and the emotional and physical side-effects caused by cancer treatment.
• Stonnington Toy Library: Supporting families experiencing hardship through an outreach program which connects communities through access to quality play materials.
• SiLVR Adventures & Bupa Baulkham Hills: Helps improve the lives of older adults through running meaningful and shared experiences in virtual reality that stimulate memories, drive social engagement and bring joy. 
• Pinnaroo Fitness Health and Wellness Inc:  The HEAL-ing program (Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyle for mental health) aims to support and educate teenagers on how to respond to influences that can affect their physical and mental health.
• Are You Bogged Mate?: This project aims to upskill AYBM staff in becoming culturally aware of First Nations people.
• The Man Cave Global: The project aims to deliver 230 workshops in NSW secondary schools in 2023, positively impacting over 8,000 teenage boys aged 12-16 by recruiting and training the next wave of Man Cave facilitators in NSW.
• Wellsprings for Women: This grant will enable Wellsprings for Women to update its English literacy booklet be used to aid level 1 classes in Dandenong and Casey, Victoria.  
• Borderline Australia: Borderline Australia is a youth mental health charity all about SMASHING down the walls when it comes to the stigma around youth mental health.  
• The Venny Inc: The Venny To you is a pop-up play experience provided to children on-site at the Public Housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne.
• Lung Foundation Australia: This project aims to deliver digital access to video resources providing information and support for mental health issues as a result of living with lung cancer.  
• Koala Clancy Foundation: The project objective is to save koalas from extinction by creating new habitats for them while also offering participants the opportunity to build their self-esteem and social connections and connection with nature.
• Ocean Mind: A charity that provides therapeutic surf programs for young people who are experiencing mental health challenges, social isolation and disabilities.
• South Adelaide Volleyball Club: The SA Volleyball Club will equip coaches and administrators with training to help them manage player concerns, as well as increase mental health awareness in order to navigate this space for its players.
• Batyr Australia: This project will help support young people in the Northern Rivers with disaster recovery, through batyr@school preventative mental health programs, and the sharing of lived-experience stories.
• Amputee Golf Victoria: The objective of this project is to build Healthy Minds through community, sport and social interaction in the form of an annual state championship for amputee golfers in Victoria.  
• Achilles Melbourne Incorporated: With this funding, Achilles Melbourne will undertake 4 excursions to Victorian regional areas to implement a program in which we would build the confidence of athletes who are blind or have a disability to participate in community events, train locals to guide and help support athletes who are blind or have a disability to participate in community events, and cultivate social connections between all participants.
• Australian Kookaburra Kids Foundation: The grant will support an activity day to be run in the Moreton Bay area in early 2023 supporting young people through an intervention program designed by clinicians that offer a fresh approach to holistic mental health care.
• Baptcare Orana Home Care in Tasmania aims to help seniors who are less mobile than they once were to be more active and feel supported in their community helping to reduce anxiety, depression and to support wellness.

New Zealand

• Cambridge Life Skills Institute Trust: Cambridge Life Skills provides a free counselling & child centred play therapy service to the thirteen public schools in the Cambridge district.
• Warriors Community Foundation: The Warriors Community Foundation tackles social issues through delivery of sports programs and community initiatives that help support mental health, antibullying, literacy and other wellbeing skills.
• UpsideDowns Education Trust: UpsideDowns is a charity providing children living with Down Syndrome throughout Aotearoa New Zealand with essential speech and language therapy in order to help them talk, read, and write.
• Northcross Intermediate School: The Hikoi Ki Te Taha Programme which strives to be a hands-on and practical response for children who feel significantly disconnected from school, their learning, their peers and the community.
• Skylight Trust: This programme is designed to strengthen and equip children and young people to help them navigate mental health challenges.
• Summerhill Charitable Trust: This organisation’s objective is to unlock young people’s potential to live healthy connected lives that create an impact in their world.
• Wattle Downs Residents and Ratepayers Association: The Association encourages residents to connect with the natural world and people around them. 
• Alzheimer’s Tauranga: creating social connections for people living with a Dementia diagnosis.