Run by the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, the Social Impact Grants support researchers and practitioners within the UTS community to maximise their social impact through projects that contribute to social good.
10 grants of up to $5000 were awarded to projects this year, and one project has been awarded a 2021 grant as a result of delays caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
As a public purpose institution, UTS has a responsibility to contribute to a healthy, sustainable and socially just society through education, research and practice. These grants enable us to fulfil this role, while also recognising and rewarding the incredible work being done by those in our UTS community.
Congratulations to the 2020 Social Impact Grant recipients:
Ramona Vijeyarasa, Chancellor's Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Law
Measuring Gillard’s legislative footprint: Making a case for more women at the top to deliver gender-responsive outcomes for fellow women
What difference do female political leaders make in the lives of fellow women? This project aims to offer an answer to this question by assessing Julia Gillard’s legal footprint from a gender-perspective, while also challenging and expanding our understanding of what constitutes a woman’s issue.
Edwina Deakin, Senior Manager, Advisory, Institute for Public Policy and Governance
Community engagement: Addressing the digital divide. A practical community engagement guide for decision makers and planners
A digital divide exists in society and for many it means being locked out from engaging in day to day life. This project aims to identify good practice tools to aid organisations so that their community engagement methods reflect the nature of this issue and don’t exclude those impacted by a lack of access to digital technology.
Paul Byron, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The mental health support of LGBTIQA+ young people during COVID-19
This project aims to determine LGBTIQA+ young people’s mental health experiences and needs during the national COVID-19 lockdown and to compare this to pre-COVID-19 data on young people’s mental health help-seeking.
Dr Darrall Thompson, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
La Perouse nationally significant public school and community: Developing equity and connecting community through digital storytelling and socially responsive design
This project aims to implement Project Based Learning at La Perouse Public School, with a focus on digital storytelling and 21st century skill development. It also aims to develop a socially responsive platform to host content and strengthen connections to local community and celebrate the national significance of the school.
Nick Hopwood, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Positive social change for families of children with feeding difficulties: raising public awareness around tube-feeding
This project aims to raise awareness around children who need to tube-feed to stay alive. The project team will work with the UTS Design Innovation Research Centre to implement a co-design process to determine the approach, format and content of the public information campaign.
Project members: Chris Elliot, St George Hospital and Sydney Children's Hospital Network, Kady Moraby, Speech Pathologist, South Australia Health, Ann Dadich, Western Sydney University Business School
Sophie Ritchie, Social Impact Manager, Rapido, Faculty of Engineering and IT
UTS COVID-19 response: Rapido Engineers to deliver remote design of PPE for Low Income Countries
Rapido Social is working with Humanitarian Engineering organisation Field Ready on this project. Field Ready is galvanising a global consortium of different tech partners to design, test, and fabricate items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Low Income Countries.
Paula Gleeson, Senior Social Researcher, Centre for Carers Research
Making meaning: Performance art as social impact
This project aims to stage an iterative performance art piece about caregiving. The objective of the artwork is to bring attention to the intimate, mundane, often invisible roles that carers do.
Project members: Tania Teague, Carer-in-Residence, Centre for Carers Research, Institute for Public Policy and Governance, Dr Barbara Doran, Lecturer, Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation and Dr Danica Knezevic, Performance Artist and Lecturer
Laura Shackel, UTS Student, Anti-Slavery Australia, Faculty of Law
Co-designing a Modern Slavery Action Toolkit for young people
This project aims to design a Modern Slavery Action Toolkit that focuses on fundraising and advocacy. The project will leverage the Anti-Slavery Australia Community Hub (due to launched in May 2020), which will provide an online forum for interested students and young people to conduct fundraising activities to abolish modern slavery.
Project members: Ruth McLelland, Anti Slavery Australia Centre Coordinator
Dr Dean Jarrett Lecturer, Indigenous Business, UTS Business School
Indigenous Evaluation Hub: Building the capacity of non-profit organisations to integrate and celebrate Indigenous paradigms into evaluation practices
This project aims to inform the development of an Indigenous Evaluation Hub, in partnership with the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and the UTS Social Impact Toolbox team. A review of Indigenous evaluation methods, tools and community valued metrics will be undertaken to provide insight into ways Indigenous paradigms can be integrated into common practice for non-Indigenous service providers.
Project members: Professor Bronwen Dalton, Head of Department, UTS Business School, Rachel Bertram, Manager, Social Impact Toolbox, UTS Business School and Sara Hudson,Senior Policy Officer, NSWALC
Dr Sara Dehm, Lecturer, Faculty of Law
Evaluating Academic Peer-Mentoring Program for Academics from a Refugee Background: Addressing best practice, promoting networks
This project aims to evaluate a pilot Academic Peer-Mentoring program that was launched in October 2019. The program aims to assist academics from refugee backgrounds to increase their familiarity with the Australian academic landscape and to increase their opportunities for engagement, collaboration and networking.
Awarded for 2021 round
Due to the interruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis, this project has been awarded a 2021 Social Impact Grant.
Danielle Manton, Associate Lecturer, Indigenous Health, Faculty of Health
Physios knock it out for Indigenous Health
The project aims to provide physiotherapy services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members in NSW at the 2020 Koori Knockout Rugby League football tournament. The tournament attracts over 10,000 players and spectators from across NSW, majority of which are Indigenous.