The Australian Government has announced additional funding to support Australian women as we respond to, and recover from, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the Women’s Leadership and Development Program (WLDP), four successful grant recipients have received funding in 2019-20 to deliver projects that will achieve women’s economic security and support women during the pandemic.

The projects span activities that aim to build women’s financial literacy skills, provide mentoring and networking opportunities, and develop resources for flexible work arrangements.

Grant recipients Victoria Stuart and Stephanie Reuss, founders of Beam Australia, said the grant will support women’s workforce participation by expanding Beam's flexible work toolkits to businesses, human resource managers and individuals.

“Our aim is to help Australia realise the productivity, job creation and gender equity benefits of flexible work when COVID-19 restrictions are over,” Ms Stuart said.

Phil Usher, Chief Executive Officer of First Nations Foundation, said that their grant will allow the Foundation to work with Aboriginal women across Australia to better improve financial wellbeing.

“This will have tremendous impact throughout the Aboriginal community as these women share the information with their families and the broader community,” said Mr Usher.

Founder of Inspiring Rare Birds, Jo Burston, aims to create diverse and inclusive workplaces, where opportunities in entrepreneurship and leadership exist for everyone.

“The funding from the grant will provide 90 women from diverse backgrounds one-on-one mentoring every month with a business expert handpicked just for them, as well as Business Building Masterclasses and connection with a supportive community of like-minded business owners and leaders,” said Ms Burston.

Chief Executive Officer, Clare Sullivan of Local Government Professionals Australia, said, “We’re finding that women in the workforce are disproportionately impacted by crises like the pandemic.”

“This grant will help us support women through online peer support, develop and share resources and research into the roles of women through COVID-19, to protect their economic security,” said Ms Sullivan.

Further grant opportunities under the WLDP are to be announced. Interested organisations should register on GrantConnect.