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Regina Brindle Grant Program
The Regina Brindle Grant Program honours Regina Brindle’s significant contributions to promoting consumer voices in the alcohol and other drug (AOD) and mental health and wellbeing (MHW) sectors in Victoria.
Each year we award a grant of up to $5,000 to a project that elevates consumers’ voices and/or supports community connectedness and engagement.
The grant is for grassroots consumer-led projects. We want to hear from individuals or small groups who currently or in the past have used AOD services and/or experienced AOD and/or mental health challenges. Family members and supporters are also eligible to apply.
About applying
Applications are lodged via an online application form that we open annually in December. To help you prepare, we have created a downloadable Word document with all the questions available here.
The Regina Brindle Grant Committee reviews applications against the eligibility criteria available below. Please ensure that your project addresses at least two of our aims, which are outlined in the box to your left. A project budget is also required. This must be created using our template, available here.
If you have a question or want to chat with a team member about your application, send us an email at apsu@sharc.org.au.
Eligibility criteria
You are eligible to apply for the grant if:
- You are an individual or small group wanting funding for a project you have designed and will deliver.
- You are either a past or present service user and/or (b) you have lived or living experience of issues relating to your AOD use and mental health and/or (c) you are a family member, partner or supporter of a person accessing services or with lived and living experience of AOD and mental health issues.
- The project will be delivered in Victoria. The project lead has lived in Victoria for more than 12 months.
- The project lead is 18 years or over.
- You can provide two referees for the project.
- Your project commences after the 27 March 2025 and before 30 November 2025.
- You agree to provide an acquittal that includes tracking of expenditure, a summary of your project’s outcomes, and evidence of project delivery, such as participant feedback and photographs of program delivery where possible.
- The project is new or a significant development of an existing project.
- The project addresses at least two of the following aims:
- Promote consumer voice
- Address barriers to social inclusion experienced by AOD and/or MH and wellbeing consumers
- Promote community engagement and education
- Reduce stigma and discrimination
- Promote human rights
- You agree to SHARC promoting your project in our internal and external promotions.
Grant Recipients 2020 to the present
The following list provides examples of previous projects funded.
2020:
- Hybrid Humans (community space) – $3500
- Mad Studies Journal Project – $1500
2021:
- Homeless in Hotels (community radio series) – $4000
- Finding Dad (children’s book) – $870
2022:
- Multicultural Minds (podcast, website, book) – $4000
- Maryborough & District Mental Health Carers Support Group- $1000
2023:
- One Love Project (youth group) – $5000
2024
- Run into Recovery (fitness and connection group) – $5,000
About Regina
Regina Brindle was a pioneer of consumer participation and advocacy for AOD and mental health service users in Victoria, laying the foundations for Association of Participating Service Users at SHARC. Regina was a passionate advocate for giving voice to consumers, and ensuring those voices be heard and engaged with in a meaningful way.
Regina’s generosity of spirit was evident in all her work. She valued everyone’s contribution, not just the eloquent and the educated. Regina built relationships based on mutual respect because she met people where they were at, always taking them seriously. She valued everybody’s contribution, no matter their background or circumstances.
She’d often tell me stories about the quietest person, the quietest consumer that she would deal with. Just little tiny anecdotes, because she just loved them. Just the tiny small things that they would bring even if they weren’t the chattiest person. – Miranda Sellings, Regina’s daughter
Regina’s favourite quote, according to Miranda, was from a presentation made by Eleanor Roosevelt to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (27 March 1958):
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
Straight From the Source
One of Regina’s many achievements while at APSU was the production of Straight from the Source – A practical guide to consumer participation in the Victorian alcohol and other drug sector. The report was co-authored with her colleague Miriam Clarke and is now in its second edition. It remains a foundational publication for consumer participation practice, developing ways to seek, engage and respond to consumer voices in all levels of service delivery, organisational functioning and policy development. You can find a copy of the guide on the APSU resources page.
